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Psalm One
Hundred and Six
Psalm 106
Chapter Contents
The happiness of God's people. (1-5) Israel's sins.
(6-12) Their provocations. (13-33) Their rebellions in Canaan. (34-46) Prayer
for more complete deliverance. (47,48)
Commentary on Psalm 106:1-5
(Read Psalm 106:1-5)
None of our sins or sufferings should prevent our
ascribing glory and praise to the Lord. The more unworthy we are, the more is
his kindness to be admired. And those who depend on the Redeemer's
righteousness will endeavour to copy his example, and by word and deed to show
forth his praise. God's people have reason to be cheerful people; and need not
envy the children of men their pleasure or pride.
Commentary on Psalm 106:6-12
(Read Psalm 106:6-12)
Here begins a confession of sin; for we must acknowledge
that the Lord has done right, and we have done wickedly. We are encouraged to
hope that though justly corrected, yet we shall not be utterly forsaken. God's
afflicted people own themselves guilty before him. God is distrusted because
his favours are not remembered. If he did not save us for his own name's sake,
and to the praise of his power and grace, we should all perish.
Commentary on Psalm 106:13-33
(Read Psalm 106:13-33)
Those that will not wait for God's counsel, shall justly
be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels. An undue
desire, even for lawful things, becomes sinful. God showed his displeasure for
this. He filled them with uneasiness of mind, terror of conscience, and
self-reproach. Many that fare deliciously every day, and whose bodies are
healthful, have leanness in their souls: no love to God, no thankfulness, no
appetite for the Bread of life, and then the soul must be lean. Those
wretchedly forget themselves, that feast their bodies and starve their souls.
Even the true believer will see abundant cause to say, It is of the Lord's
mercies that I am not consumed. Often have we set up idols in our hearts,
cleaved to some forbidden object; so that if a greater than Moses had not stood
to turn away the anger of the Lord, we should have been destroyed. If God dealt
severely with Moses for unadvised words, what do those deserve who speak many
proud and wicked words? It is just in God to remove those relations that are
blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them, and grieve their
spirits.
Commentary on Psalm 106:34-48
(Read Psalm 106:34-48)
The conduct of the Israelites in Canaan, and God's
dealings with them, show that the way of sin is down-hill; omissions make way
for commissions: when they neglected to destroy the heathen, they learned their
works. One sin led to many more, and brought the judgments of God on them.
Their sin was, in part, their own punishment. Sinners often see themselves
ruined by those who led them into evil. Satan, who is a tempter, will be a
tormentor. At length, God showed pity to his people for his covenant's sake.
The unchangeableness of God's merciful nature and love to his people, makes him
change the course of justice into mercy; and no other change is meant by God's
repentance. Our case is awful when the outward church is considered. When nations
professing Christianity, are so guilty as we are, no wonder if the Lord brings
them low for their sins. Unless there is general and deep repentance, there can
be no prospect but of increasing calamities. The psalm concludes with prayer
for completing the deliverance of God's people, and praise for the beginning
and progress of it. May all the people of the earth, ere long, add their Amen.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 106
Verse 4
[4]
Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit
me with thy salvation;
Me — He speaks here in the
name, and on the behalf of the whole nation. With-With those favours which thou
dost usually and peculiarly give to thy people.
Verse 5
[5] That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness
of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.
See —
Enjoy.
Chosen — Of
thy chosen people; such as are Israelites indeed.
Gladness —
Such joy as thou hast formerly afforded unto thy beloved nation.
Glory —
That we may have occasion to glory in God's goodness towards us.
Inheritance — In
the congregation of thy people.
Verse 6
[6] We
have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done
wickedly.
Glory — As
our fathers did.
Verse 7
[7] Our
fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.
At the sea —
When those wonders were but newly done, and fresh in memory.
Verse 8
[8] Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his
mighty power to be known.
Saved them —
That he may vindicate his name from the blasphemous reproaches, which would
have been cast upon it, if they had been destroyed.
Verse 9
[9] He
rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the
depths, as through the wilderness.
Led them — As
securely as if they had walked upon the dry land.
Verse 13
[13] They
soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
Soon —
Even within three days, Exodus 15:22,23.
Waited not —
They did not wait patiently upon God for supplies, in such manner and time as
he thought fit.
Verse 14
[14] But
lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
Lusted —
For flesh.
Verse 15
[15] And
he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
Souls —
Into their bodies. So their inordinate desire of pampering their bodies, was
the occasion of destroying them.
Verse 16
[16] They
envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD.
The saint — So
called, because he was consecrated by God for that sacred office of the
priesthood, in which respect all the priests are said to be holy, Leviticus 21:6-8. Hereby he intimates, that
their envy and rebellion was not only against Aaron, but against God himself.
Verse 19
[19] They
made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.
A calf —
When they were but just brought out of Egypt by such wonders, and had seen the
plagues of God upon the Egyptian idolaters, and when the law of God was but
newly delivered to them in such a tremendous manner.
Verse 20
[20] Thus
they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
Their glory —
God, who was indeed their glory.
Into —
Into the golden image of an ox or calf, which is so far from feeding his
people, as the true God did the Israelites, that he must be fed by them.
Verse 23
[23]
Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood
before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.
Breach —
God had made a wall about them; but they had made a breach in it by their sins,
at which the Lord, who was now justly become their enemy, might enter to
destroy them; which he had certainly done, if Moses by his prevailing
intercession had not hindered him.
Verse 24
[24] Yea,
they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:
Despised —
Preferring Egypt, and their former bondage, before it, Numbers 14:3,4.
Verse 25
[25] But
murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD.
The voice — To
God's command, that they should boldly enter into it.
Verse 26
[26]
Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:
Lifted up — He
sware. Of this dreadful and irrevocable oath of God, see Numbers 14:11,12.
Verse 27
[27] To
overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.
Overthrow — He
sware also (tho' not at the same time) that he would punish their sins, not
only in their persons, but in their posterity.
Verse 28
[28] They
joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
Joined —
They had communion with him, as God's people have with God in acts of his
worship.
Verse 31
[31] And
that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.
And — It
was accepted and rewarded of God as an act of justice and piety.
Verse 37
[37] Yea,
they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
Devils —
They did not worship God as they pretended, but devils in their idols; for
those spirits, which were supposed by the Heathen idolaters to inhabit in their
images, were not good spirits, but evil spirits, or devils.
Verse 43
[43] Many
times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were
brought low for their iniquity.
Counsel — By
forsaking God's way, and following their own inventions.
Verse 45
[45] And he
remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of
his mercies.
Repented —
Changed his course and dealing with them.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
GENERAL REMARKS. This Psalm
begins and ends with Hallelujah—"Praise ye the Lord." The space
between these two descriptions of praise is filled up with the mournful details
of Israel's sin, and the extraordinary patience of God; and truly we do well to
bless the Lord both at the beginning and the end of our meditations when sin
and grace are the themes. This sacred song is occupied with the historical part
of the Old Testament, and is one of many which are thus composed: surely this
should be a sufficient rebuke to those who speak slightingly of the historical
Scriptures; it in becomes a child of God to think lightly of that which the
Holy Spirit so frequently uses for our instruction. What other Scriptures had
David beside those very histories which are so depreciated, and yet he esteemed
them beyond his necessary food, and made them his songs in the house of his
pilgrimage?
Israel's
history is here written with the view of showing human sin, even as the
preceding psalm was composed to magnify divine goodness. It is, in fact, a national
confession, and includes an acknowledgment of the transgressions of Israel in
Egypt, in the wilderness, and in Canaan, with devout petitions for forgiveness
such as rendered the Psalm suitable for use in all succeeding generations, and
especially in times of national captivity. It was probably written by David,—at
any rate its first and last two verses are to be found in that sacred song
which David delivered to Asaph when he brought up the ark of the Lord (1Ch
16:34,35,36). While we are studying this holy Psalm, let us all along see
ourselves in the Lord's ancient people, and bemoan our own provocations of the
Most High, at the same time admiring his infinite patience, and adoring him
because of it. May the Holy Spirit sanctify it to the promotion of humility and
gratitude.
DIVISION. Praise and
prayer are blended in the introduction (Ps 106:1-5). Then comes the story of
the nation's sins, which continues till the closing prayer and praise of the
last two verses. While making confession the Psalmist acknowledges the sins
committed in Egypt and at the Red Sea (Ps 106:6-12), the lusting in the
wilderness (Ps 106:13-15), the envying of Moses and Aaron (Ps 106:16-18), the
worship of the golden calf (Ps 106:19-23) the despising of the promised land
(Ps 106:24-27), the iniquity of Baal Peor (Ps 106:28-30), and the waters of
Meribah (Ps 106:28-33). Then he owns the failure of Israel when settled in
Canaan, and mentions their consequent chastisement (Ps 106:34-44), together
with the quick compassion which came to their relief when they were brought low
(Ps 106:44-46). The closing prayer and doxology fill up the remaining verses.
Verse
1. Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise ye Jah. This song
is for the assembled people, and they are all exhorted to join in praise to
Jehovah. It is not meet for a few to praise and the rest to be silent; but all
should join. If David were present in churches where quartets and choirs carry
on all the singing, he would turn to the congregation and say, "Praise ye
the Lord." Our meditation dwells upon human sin; but on all occasions and
in all occupations it is seasonable and profitable to praise the Lord. O give
thanks unto the Lord; for he is good. To us needy creatures the goodness of God
is the first attribute which excites praise, and that praise takes the form of
gratitude. We praise the Lord truly when we give him thanks for what we have
received from his goodness. Let us never be slow to return unto the Lord our
praise; to thank him is the least we can do—let us not neglect it. For his
mercy endureth for ever. Goodness towards sinners assumes the form of mercy,
mercy should therefore be a leading note in our song. Since man ceases not to
be sinful, it is a great blessing that Jehovah ceases not to be merciful. From
age to age the Lord deals graciously with his church, and to every individual
in it he is constant and faithful in his grace, even for evermore. In a short
space we have here two arguments for praise, "for he is good: for his
mercy endureth for ever, "and these two arguments are themselves praises.
The very best language of adoration is that which adoringly in the plainest
words sets forth the simple truth with regard to our great Lord. No rhetorical
flourishes or poetical hyperboles are needed, the bare facts are sublime
poetry, and the narration of them with reverence is the essence of adoration.
This first verse is the text of all that which follows; we are now to see how
from generation to generation the mercy of God endured to his chosen people.
Verse
2. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? What tongue of
men or angels can duly describe the great displays of divine power? They are
unutterable. Even those who saw them could not fully tell them. Who can shew
forth all his praise? To declare his works is the same thing as to praise him,
for his own doings are his best commendation. We cannot say one tenth so much
for him as his own character and acts have already done? Those who praise the
Lord have an infinite subject, a subject which will not be exhausted throughout
eternity by the most enlarged intellects, nay, nor by the whole multitude of
the redeemed, though no man can number them. The questions of this verse never
can be answered; their challenge can never be accepted, except in that humble measure
which can be reached by a holy life and a grateful heart.
Verse
3. Since the Lord is so good and so worthy to be praised, it must be
for our happiness to obey him. Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that
doeth righteousness at all times. Multiplied are the blessings which
must descend upon the whole company of the keepers of the way of justice, and
especially upon that one rare man who at all times follows that which is right.
Holiness is happiness. The way of right is the way of peace. Yet men leave this
road, and prefer the paths of the destroyer. Hence the story which follows is
in sad contrast with the happiness here depicted, because the way of Israel was
not that of judgment and righteousness, but that of folly and iniquity. The
Psalmist, while contemplating the perfections of God, was impressed with the
feeling that the servants of such a being must be happy, and when he looked
around and saw how the tribes of old prospered when they obeyed, and suffered
when they sinned, he was still more fully assured of the truth of his
conclusion. O could we but be free of sin we should be rid of sorrow! We would
not only be just, but "keep judgment"; we would not be content with
occasionally acting rightly, but would "do justice at all times."
Verse
4. Remember me, O Lord, with the favour which thou bearest unto
thy people. Insignificant as I am, do not forget me. Think of me with
kindness, even as thou thinkest of thine own elect. I cannot ask more, nor
would I seek less. Treat me as the least of thy saints are treated and I am
content. It should be enough for us if we fare as the rest of the family. If
even Balaam desired no more than to die the death of the righteous, we may be
well content both to live as they live, and die as they die. This feeling would
prevent our wishing to escape trial, persecution, and chastisement; these have
fallen to the lot of saints, and why should we escape them
"Must
I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of case?
While others fought to will the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas."
At
the same time we pray to have their sweets as well as their bitters. If the
Lord smiled upon their souls we cannot rest unless he smiles upon us also. We
would dwell where they dwell, rejoice as they rejoice, sorrow as they sorrow,
and in all things be for ever one with them in the favour of the Lord. The
sentence before us is a sweet prayer, at once humble and aspiring, submissive
and expansive; it might be used by a dying thief or a living apostle; let us
use it now. O visit me with thy salvation. Bring it home to me. Come to my
house and to my heart, and give me the salvation which thou hast prepared, and
art alone able to bestow. We sometimes hear of a man's dying by the visitation
of God, but here is one who knows that he can only live by the visitation of
God. Jesus said of Zacchaeus, "This day is salvation come to this house,
"and that was the case because he himself had come there. There is no
salvation apart from the Lord, and he must visit us with it or we shall never
obtain it. We are too sick to visit our Great Physician, and therefore he
visits us. O that our great Bishop would hold a visitation of all the churches,
and bestow his benediction upon all his flock. Sometimes the second prayer of
this verse seems to be too great for us, for we feel that we are not worthy
that the Lord should come under our roof. Visit me, Lord? Can it be? Dare I ask
for it? And yet I must, for thou alone cans: bring me salvation: therefore,
Lord, I entreat thee come unto me, and abide with me for ever.
Verse
5. That I may see the good of thy chosen. His desire for the
divine favour was excited by the hope that he might participate in all the good
things which flow to the people of God through their election. The Father has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, according as he has
chosen us in him, and in these precious gifts we desire to share through the
saving visitation of the Lord. No other good do we wish to see, perceive, and
apprehend, but that which is the peculiar treasure of the saints. That I may
rejoice in the gladness of thy nation. The psalmist, having sought his portion
in the good of the chosen, now also begs to be a partaker in their joy for of
all the nations under heaven the Lord's true people are the happiest. That I
may glory with thine inheritance. He would have a part and lot in their honour
as well as their joy. He was willing to find glory where saints find it,
namely, in being reproached for truth's sake. To serve the Lord and endure
shame for his sake is the glory of the saints below: Lord, let me rejoice to
bear my part therein. To be with God above, for ever blessed in Christ Jesus,
is the glory of saints above: O Lord, be pleased to allot me a place there
also. These introductory thanksgivings and supplications, though they occur
first in the psalm, are doubtless the result of the contemplations which
succeed them, and may be viewed not only as the preface, but also as the moral
of the whole sacred song.
Verse
6. We have sinned with our fathers. Here begins a long and
particular confession. Confession of sin is the readiest way to secure an
answer to the prayer of verse 4; God visits with his salvation the soul which
acknowledges its need of a Saviour. Men may be said to have sinned with their
fathers when they imitate them, when they follow the same objects, and make
their own lives to be mere continuations of the follies of their sires.
Moreover, Israel was but one nation in all time, and the confession which
follows sets forth the national rather than the personal sin of the Lord's
people. They enjoyed national privileges, and therefore they shared in national
guilt. We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Thus is the
confession repeated three times, in token of the sincerity and heartiness of
it. Sins of omission, commission, and rebellion we ought to acknowledge under
distinct heads, that we may show a due sense of the number and heinousness of
our offences.
Verse
7. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. The
Israelites saw the miraculous plagues and ignorantly wondered at them: their
design of love, their deep moral and spiritual lessons, and their revelation of
the divine power and justice they were unable to perceive. A long sojourn among
idolaters had blunted the perceptions of the chosen family, and cruel slavery
had ground them down into mental sluggishness. Alas, how many of God's wonders
are not understood, or misunderstood by us still. We fear the sons are no great
improvement upon the sires. We inherit from our fathers much sin and little
wisdom; they could only leave us what they themselves possessed. We see from
this verse that a want of understanding is no excuse for sin, but is itself one
count in the indictment against Israel. They remembered not the multitude of thy
mercies. The sin of the understanding leads on to the sin of the memory. What
is not understood will soon be forgotten. Men feel little interest in
preserving husks; if they know nothing of the inner kernel they will take no
care of the shells. It was an aggravation of Israel's sin that when God's
mercies were so numerous they yet were able to forget them all. Surely some out
of such a multitude of benefits ought to have remained engraven upon their
hearts; but if grace does not give us understanding, nature will soon east out
the memory of God's great goodness. But provoked him at the sea, even; at the
Red sea. To fall out at starting was a bad sign. Those who did not begin well
can hardly be expected to end well. Israel is not quite out of Egypt, and yet
she begins to provoke the Lord by doubting his power to deliver, and
questioning his faithfulness to his promise. The sea was only called Red, but
their sins were scarlet in reality; it was known as the "sea of weeds,
"but far worse weeds grew in their hearts.
Verse
8. Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might
make his mighty power to be known. When he could find no other reason for
his mercy he found it in his own glory, and seized the opportunity to display
his power. If Israel does not deserve to be saved, yet Pharaoh's pride needs to
be crushed, and therefore Israel shall be delivered. The Lord very jealously
guards his own name and honour. It shall never be said of him that he cannot or
will not save his people, or that he cannot abate the haughtiness of his
defiant foes. This respect unto his own honour ever leads him to deeds of
mercy, and hence we may well rejoice that he is a jealous God.
Verse
9. He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up. A word
did it. The sea heard his voice and obeyed. How many rebukes of God are lost
upon us! Are we not more unmanageable than the ocean? God did, as it were,
chide the sea, and say, "Wherefore dost thou stop the way of my people?
Their path to Canaan lies through thy channel, how dare you hinder them?"
The sea perceived its Master and his seed royal, and made way at once. So he
led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. As if it had been the
dry floor of the desert the tribes passed over the bottom of the gulf; nor was
their passage venturesome, for HE bade them go;nor dangerous, for He led them.
We also have under divine protection passed through many trials and
afflictions, and with the Lord as our guide we have experienced no fear and
endured no perils. We have been led through the deeps as through the
wilderness.
Verse
10. And he saved them from the hand of them that hated them.
Pharaoh was drowned, and the power of Egypt so crippled that throughout the
forty years' wanderings of Israel they were never threatened by their old
masters. And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. This was a redemption by
power, and one of the most instructive types of the redemption of the Lord's
people from sin and hell by the power which worketh in them.
Verse
11. And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of
them left. The Lord does nothing by halves. What he begins he carries
through to the end. This, again, made Israel's sin the greater, because they
saw the thoroughness of the divine justice, and the perfection of the divine
faithfulness. In the covering of their enemies we have a type of the pardon of
our sins; they are sunk as in the sea, never to rise again; and, blessed be the
Lord, there is "not one of them left."—Not one sin of thought, or
word, or deed, the blood of Jesus has covered all. "I will cast their
iniquities into the depths of the sea."
Verse
12. Then believed they his words. That is to say, they
believed the promise when they saw it fulfilled, but not till then. This is
mentioned, not to their credit, but to their shame. Those who do not believe
the Lord's word till they see it performed are not believers at all. Who would
not believe when the fact stares them in the face? The Egyptians would have
done as much as this. They sang his praise. How could they do otherwise? Their
song was very excellent, and is the type of the song of heaven; but sweet as it
was, it was quite as short, and when it was ended they fell to murmuring.
"They sang his praise, "but "they soon forgat his works."
Between Israel singing and Israel sinning there was scarce a step. Their song
was good while it lasted, but it was no sooner begun than over.
Verse
13. They soon forgat his works. They seemed in a hurry to get
the Lord's mercies out of their memories; they hasted to be ungrateful. They
waited not for his counsel, neither waiting for the word of command or promise;
eager to have their own way, and prone to trust in themselves. This is a common
fault in the Lord's family to this day; we are long in learning to wait for the
Lord, and upon the Lord. With him is counsel and strength, but we are vain
enough to look for these to ourselves, and therefore we grievously err.
Verse
14. But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness. Though they
would not wait God's will, they are hot to have their own. When the most
suitable and pleasant food was found them in abundance, it did not please them
long, but they grew dainty and sniffed at angel's food, and must needs have
flesh to eat, which was unhealthy diet for that warm climate, and for their easy
life. This desire of theirs they dwelt upon till it became a mania with them,
and, like a wild horse, carried away its rider. For a meal of meat they were
ready to curse their God and renounce the land which floweth with milk and
honey. What a wonder that the Lord did not take them at their word! It is plain
that they vexed him greatly, And tempted God in the desert. In the place where
they were absolutely dependent upon him and were everyday fed by his direct
provision, they had the presumption to provoke their God. They would have him
change the plans of his wisdom, supply their sensual appetites, and work
miracles to meet their wicked unbelief: these things the Lord would not do, but
they went as far as they could in trying to induce him to do so. They failed
not in their wicked attempt because of any goodness in themselves, but because
God "cannot be tempted, "—temptation has no power over him, he yields
not to man's threats or promises.
Verse
15. And he gave them their request. Prayer may be answered in
anger and denied in love. That God gives a man his desire is no proof that he
is the object of divine favour, everything depends upon what that desire is.
But sent leanness into their soul. Ah, that "but!" It embittered all.
The meat was poison to them when it came without a blessing; whatever it might
do in fattening the body, it was poor stuff when it made the soul lean. If we
must know scantiness, may God grant it may not be scantiness of soul: yet this
is a common attendant upon worldly prosperity. When wealth grows with many a
man his worldly estate is fatter, but his soul's state is leaner. To gain
silver and lose gold is a poor increase; but to win for the body and lose for
the soul is far worse. How earnestly might Israel have unprayed her prayers had
she known what would come with their answer! The prayers of lust will have to
be wept over. We fret and fume till we have our desire, and then we have to
fret still note because the attainment of it ends in bitter disappointment.
Verse
16. They envied Moses also in the camp. Though to him as the
Lord's chosen instrument they owed everything, they grudged him the authority
which it was needful that he should exercise for their good. Some were more
openly rebellious than others, and became leaders of the mutiny, but a spirit
of dissatisfaction was general, and therefore the whole nation is charged with
it. Who can hope to escape envy when the meekest of men was subject to it? How
unreasonable was this envy, for Moses was the one man in all the camp who
laboured hardest and had most to bear. They should have sympathised with him;
to envy him was ridiculous. And Aaron the saint of the Lord. By divine choice
Aaron was set apart to be holiness unto the Lord, and instead of thanking God
that he had favoured them with a high priest by whose intercession their
prayers would be presented, they cavilled at the divine election, and
quarrelled with the man who was to offer sacrifice for them. Thus neither
church nor state was ordered aright for them; they would snatch from Moses his
sceptre, and from Aaron his mitre. It is the mark of bad men that they are
envious of the good, and spiteful against their best benefactors.
Verse
17. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the
company of Abiram. Korah is not mentioned, for mercy was extended to his
household, though he himself perished. The earth could no longer bear up under
the weight of these rebels and ingrates: God's patience was exhausted when they
began to assail his servants, for his children are very dear to him, and he
that toucheth them touches the apple of his eye. Moses had opened the sea for
their deliverance, and now that they provoke him, the earth opens for their
destruction. It was time that the nakedness of their sins was covered, and that
the earth should open her mouth to devour those who opened their mouths against
the Lord and his servants.
Verse
18. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up
the wicked. The Levites who were with Korah perished by fire, which was a
most fitting death for those who intruded into the priesthood, and so offered
strange fire. God has more than one arrow in his quiver, the fire can consume
those whom the earthquake spares. These terrible things in righteousness are
mentioned here to show the obstinacy of the people in continuing to rebel
against the Lord. Terrors were as much lost upon them as mercies had been; they
could neither be drawn nor driven.
Verse
19. They made a calf in Horeb. In the very place where they
had solemnly pledged themselves to obey the Lord they broke the second, if not
the first, of his commandments, and set up the Egyptian symbol of the ox, and
bowed before it. The ox image is here sarcastically called "a calf";
idols are worthy of no respect, scorn is never more legitimately used than when
it is poured upon all attempts to set forth the Invisible God. The Israelites
were foolish indeed when they thought they saw the slightest divine glory in a
bull, nay, in the mere image of a bull. To believe that the image of a bull
could be the image of God must need great credulity. And worshipped the molten
image. Before it they paid divine honours, and said, "These be thy gods, O
Israel." This was sheer madness. After the same fashion the Ritualists
must needs set up their symbols and multiply them exceedingly. Spiritual
worship they seem unable to apprehend; their worship is sensuous to the highest
degree, and appeals to eye, and ear, and nose. O the folly of men to block up
their own way to acceptable worship, and to make the path of spiritual
religion, which is hard to our nature, harder still through the stumblingblocks
which they cast into it. We have heard the richness of Popish paraphernalia
much extolled, but an idolatrous image when made of gold is not one jot the less
abominable than it would have been had it been made of dross and dung: the
beauty of art cannot conceal the deformity of sin. We are told also of the
suggestiveness of their symbols, but what of that, when God forbids the use of
them? Vain also is it to plead that such worship is hearty. So much the worse.
Heartiness in forbidden actions is only an increase of transgression.
Verse
20. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox
that eateth grass. They said that they only meant to worship the one God
under a fitting and suggestive similitude by which his great power would be set
forth to the multitude; they pleaded the great Catholic revival which followed
upon this return to a more ornate ceremonial, for the people thronged around
Aaron, and danced before the calf with all their might. But in very deed they
had given up the true God, whom it had been their glory to adore, and had set
up a rival to him, not a representation of him; for how should he be likened to
a bullock? The psalmist is very contemptuous, and justly so: irreverence
towards idols is an indirect reverence to God. False gods, attempts to
represent the true God, and indeed, all material things which are worshipped,
are so much filth upon the face of the earth, whether they be crosses,
crucifixes, virgins, wafers, relics, or even the Pope himself. We are by far
too mealy mouthed about these infamous abominations: God abhors them, and so
should we. To renounce the glory of spiritual worship for outward pomp and show
is the height of folly, and deserves to be treated as such.
Verse
21. They forgat God their saviour. Remembering the calf
involved forgetting God. He had commanded them to make no image, and in daring
to disobey they forgot his commands. Moreover, it is clear that they must
altogether have forgotten the nature and character of Jehovah, or they could
never have likened him to a grass eating animal. Some men hope to keep their
sins and their God too—the fact being that he who sins is already so far
departed from the Lord that he has actually forgotten him. Which had done great
things in Egypt. God in Egypt had overcome all the idols, and yet they so far
forgot him as to liken him to them. Could an ox work miracles? Could a golden
calf cast plagues upon Israel's enemies? They were brutish to set up such a
wretched mockery of deity, after having seen what the true God could really
achieve. "Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the
Red sea". They saw several ranges of miracles, the Lord did not stint them
as to the evidences of his eternal power and godhead, and yet they could not
rest content with worshipping him in his own appointed way, but must needs have
a Directory of their own invention, an elaborate ritual after the old Egyptian
fashion, and a manifest object of worship to assist them in adoring Jehovah.
This was enough to provoke the Lord, and it did so; how much he is angered
every day in our own land no tongue can tell.
Verse
23. Therefore he said that he would destroy them. The
threatening of destruction came at last. For the first wilderness sin he
chastened them, sending leanness into their soul; for the second he weeded out
the offenders, the flame burned up the wicked; for the third he threatened to
destroy them; for the fourth he lifted up his hand and almost came to blows (Ps
106:26); for the fifth he actually smote them, "and the plague brake in
among them"; and so the punishment increased with their perseverance in
sin. This is worth noting, and it should serve as a warning to the man who goeth
on in his iniquities. God tries words before he comes to blows, "he said
that he would destroy them": but his words are not to be trifled with, for
he means them, and has power to make them good. Had not Moses his chosen stood
before him in the breach. Like a bold warrior who defends the wall when there
is an opening for the adversary and destruction is rushing in upon the city,
Moses stopped the way of avenging justice with his prayers. Moses had great
power with God. He was an eminent type of our Lord, who is called, as Moses
here is styled, "mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth." As the
Elect Redeemer interposed between the Lord and a sinful world, so did Moses
stand between the Lord and his offending people. The story as told by Moses himself
is full of interest and instruction, and tends greatly to magnify the goodness
of the Lord, who thus suffered himself to be turned from the fierceness of his
anger. With disinterested affection, and generous renunciation of privileges
offered to himself and his family, the great Lawgiver interceded with the Lord
to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. Behold the power of a
righteous man's intercession. Mighty as was the sin of Israel to provoke
vengeance, prayer was mightier in turning it away. How diligently ought we to
plead with the Lord for this guilty world, and especially for his own
backsliding people! Who would not employ an agency so powerful for an end so
gracious! The Lord still harkens to the voice of a man, shall not our voices be
often exercised in supplicating for a guilty people? Verse 24. Yea,
they despised the pleasant land. They spoke lightly of it, though it was
the joy of all lands: they did not think it worth the trouble of seeking and
conquering; they even spoke of Egypt, the land of their iron bondage, as though
they preferred it to Canaan, the land which floweth with milk and honey. It is
an ill sign with a Christian when he begins to think lightly of heaven and
heavenly things; it indicates a perverted mind, and it is, moreover, a high
offence to the Lord to despise that which he esteems so highly that he in
infinite love reserves it for his own chosen. To prefer earthly things to
heavenly blessings is to prefer Egypt to Canaan, the house of bondage to the
land of promise. They believed not his word. This is the root sin. If we do not
believe the Lord's word, we shall think lightly of his promised gifts.
"They could not enter in because of unbelief"—this was the key which
turned the lock against them. When pilgrims to the Celestial City begin to
doubt the Lord of the way, they soon come to think little of the rest at the
journey's end, and this is the surest way to make them bad travellers. Israel's
unbelief demanded spies to see the land; the report of those spies was of a mingled
character, and so a fresh crop of unbelief sprang up, with consequences most
deplorable.
Verse
25. But murmured in their tents. From unbelief to murmuring is
a short and natural step; they even fell to weeping when they had the best
ground for rejoicing. Murmuring is a great sin and not a mere weakness; it
contains within itself unbelief, pride, rebellion, and a whole host of sins. It
is a home sin, and is generally practised by complainers "in their tents,
"but it is just as evil there as in the streets, and will be quite as
grievous to the Lord. And hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. Making a
din with their own voices, they refused attention to their best Friend.
Murmurers are bad hearers.
Verse
26. Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow
them in the wilderness. He swore in his wrath that they should not enter
into his rest; he commenced his work of judgment upon them, and they began to
die. Only let God lift his hand against a man and his day has come; he falls
terribly whom Jehovah overthrows. To overthrow their seed also among the
nations, and to scatter them in the lands. Foreseeing that their
descendants would reproduce their sins, he solemnly declared that he would give
them over to captivity and the sword. Those whose carcases fell in the
wilderness were, in a sense, exiles from the land of promise, and, being
surrounded by many hostile tribes, they were virtually in a foreign land: to
die far off from their father's inheritance was a just and weighty doom, which
their rebellions had richly deserved. Our own loss of fellowship with God, and
the divisions in our churches, doubtless often come to us as punishments for
the sins out of which they grow. If we will not honour the Lord we cannot
expect him to honour us. Our captains shall soon become captives, and our
princes shall be prisoners if we forget the Lord and despise his mercies. Our
singing shall be turned into sighing, and our mirth into misery if we walk
contrary to the mind of the Lord.
Verse
28. They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor. Ritualism led
on to the adoration of false gods. If we choose a false way of worship we
shall, ere long, choose to worship a false god. This abomination of the
Moabites was an idol in whose worship women gave up their bodies to the most
shameless lust. Think of the people of a holy God coming down to this. And ate
the sacrifices of the dead. In the orgies with which the Baalites celebrated
their detestable worship Israel joined, partaking even in their sacrifices as
earnest inner court worshippers, though the gods were but dead idols. Perhaps
they assisted in necromantic rites which were intended to open a correspondence
with departed spirits, thus endeavouring to break the seal of God's providence,
and burst into the secret chambers which God has shut up. Those who are weary
of seeking the living God have often shown a hankering after dark sciences, and
have sought after fellowship with demons and spirits. To what strong delusions
those are often given up who cast off the fear of God! This remark is as much
needed now as in days gone by.
Verse
29. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the
plague brake in upon them. Open licentiousness and avowed idolatry were too
gross to be winked at. This time the offences clamoured for judgment, and the
judgment came at once. Twenty-four thousand persons fell before a sudden and
deadly disease which threatened to run through the whole camp. Their new sins
brought on them a disease new to their tribes. When men invent sins God will
not be slow to invent punishments. Their vices were a moral pest, and they were
visited with a bodily pest: so the Lord meets like with its like.
Verse
30. Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the
plague was stayed. God has his champions left in the worst times, and they
will stand up when the time comes for them to come forth to battle. This
righteous indignation moved him to a quick execution of two open offenders. His
honest spirit could not endure that lewdness should be publicly practised at a
time when a fast had been proclaimed. Such daring defiance of God and of all
law he could not brook, and so with his sharp javelin he transfixed the two
guilty ones in the very act. It was a holy passion which inflamed him, and no
enmity to either of the persons whom he slew. The circumstances were so
remarkable and the sin so flagrant that it would have involved great sin in a
public man to have stood still and seen God thus defied, and Israel thus
polluted. Phinehas was not of this mind, he was no trimmer, or palliator of
sin, his heart was sound in God's statutes, and his whole nature was ablaze
with zeal for God's glory, and therefore, though a priest, and therefore not
obliged to be an executioner, he undertook the unwelcome task, and though both
transgressors were of princely stock he had no respect of persons, but dealt
justice upon them as if they had been the lowest of the people. This brave and
decided deed was so acceptable to God as a proof that there were some sincere
souls in Israel that the deadly visitation went no further. Two deaths had
sufficed to save the lives of the multitude.
Verse
31. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all
generations for evermore. Down to the moment when this psalm was penned the
house of Phinehas was honoured in Israel. His faith had performed a valorous
deed, and his righteousness was testified of the Lord, and honoured by the
continuance of his family in the priesthood. He was impelled by motives that
what would otherwise have been a deed of blood was justified in the sight of
God; nay, more, was made the evidence that Phinehas was righteous. No personal
ambition, or private revenge, or selfish passion, or even fanatical bigotry,
inspired the man of God, but zeal for God, indignation at open filthiness, and
true patriotism urged him on. Once again we have cause to note the mercy of God
that even when his warrant was out, and actual execution was proceeding, he
stayed his hand at the suit of one man: finding, as it were, an apology for his
grace when justice seemed to demand immediate vengeance.
Verse
32. They angered him also at the waters of strife. Will they
never have done? The scene changes, but the sin continues. Aforetime they had
mutinied about water when prayer would soon have turned the desert into a
standing pool, but now they do it again after their former experience of the
divine goodness. This made the sin a double, yea a sevenfold offence, and
caused the anger of the Lord to be the more intense. So that it went in with Moses
for their sakes. Moses was at last wearied out, and began to grow angry with
them and utterly hopeless of their ever improving; can we wonder at it, for he
was man and not God? After forty years bearing with them the meek man's temper
gave way, and he called them rebels, and showed unhallowed anger; and therefore
he was not permitted to enter the land which he desired to inherit. Truly, he
had a sight of the goodly country from the top of Pisgah, but entrance was
denied him, and thus it went ill with him. It was their sin which angered him,
but he had to bear the consequences; however clear it may be that others are
more guilty than ourselves, we should always remember that this will not screen
us, but every man must bear his own burden.
Verse
33. Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly
with his lips. Which seems a small sin compared with that of others, but
then it was the sin of Moses, the Lord's chosen servant, who had seen and known
so much of the Lord, and therefore it could not be passed by. He did not speak
blasphemously, or falsely, but only hastily and without care; but this is a
serious fault in a lawgiver, and especially in one who speaks for God. This
passage is to our mind one of the most terrible in the Bible. Truly we serve a
jealous God. Yet he is not a hard master, or austere; we must not think so, but
we must then rather be jealous of ourselves, and watch that we live the more
carefully, and speak the more advisedly, because we serve such a Lord. We ought
also to be very careful how we treat the ministers of the gospel, lest by
provoking their spirit we should drive them into any unseemly behaviour which
should bring upon them the chastisement of the Lord. Little do a murmuring,
quarrelsome people dream of the perils in which they involve their pastors by
their untoward behaviour.
Verse
34. They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD
commanded them. They were commissioned to act as executioners upon races
condemned for their unnatural crimes, and through sloth, cowardice, or Sinful
complacency they sheathed the sword too soon, very much to their own danger and
disquietude. It is a great evil with professors that they are not zealous for
the total destruction of all sin within and without. We make alliances of peace
where we ought to proclaim war to the knife; we plead our constitutional
temperament, our previous habits, the necessity of our circumstances, or some
other evil excuse as an apology for being content with a very partial
sanctification, if indeed it be sanctification at all. We are slow also to
rebuke sin in others, and are ready to spare respectable sins, which like Agag
walk with mincing steps. The measure of our destruction of sin is not to be our
inclination, or the habit of others, but the Lord's command. We have no warrant
for dealing leniently with any sin, be it what it may.
Verse
35. But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
It was not the wilderness which caused Israel's sins; they were just as
disobedient when settled in the land of promise. They found evil company, and
delighted in it. Those whom they should have destroyed they made their friends.
Having enough faults of their own, they were yet ready to go to school to the
filthy Canaanites, and educate themselves still more in the arts of iniquity.
It was certain that they could learn no good from men whom the Lord had
condemned to utter destruction. Few would wish to go to the condemned cell for
learning, yet Israel sat at the feet of accursed Canaan, and rose up proficient
in every abomination. This, too, is a grievous but common error among
professors: they court worldly company and copy worldly fashions, and yet it is
their calling to bear witness against these things. None can tell what evil has
come of the folly of worldly conformity.
Verse
36. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.
They were fascinated by the charms of idolatry, though it brings misery upon
its votaries. A man cannot serve sin without being ensnared by it. It is like
birdlime, and to touch it is to be taken by it. Samson laid his head in the
Philistine woman's lap, but ere long he woke up shorn of his strength.
Dalliance with sin is fatal to spiritual liberty.
Verse
37. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto
devils. This was being snared indeed; they were spell bound by the cruel
superstition, and were carried so far as even to become murderers of their own
children, in honour of the most detestable deities, which were rather devils
than gods. "And shed innocent blood." The poor little ones whom they
put to death in sacrifice had not been partakers of their sin, and God looked
with the utmost indignation upon the murder of the innocent. "Even the
blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols
of Canaan." Who knows how far evil will go? It drove men to be unnatural
as well as ungodly. Had they but thought for a moment, they must have seen that
a deity who could be pleased with the blood of babes spilt by their own sires
could not be a deity at all, but must be a demon, worthy to be detested and not
adored. How could they prefer such service to that of Jehovah? Did he
tear their babes from their bosoms and smile at their death throes? Men will
sooner wear the iron yoke of Satan than carry the pleasant burden of the Lord;
does not this prove to a demonstration the deep depravity of their hearts? If
man be not totally depraved, what worse would he do if he were? Does not this
verse describe the ne plus ultra of iniquity? And the land was polluted with
blood. The promised land, the holy land, which was the glory of all lands, for
God was there, was defiled with the reeking gore of innocent babes, and by the
blood red hands of their parents, who slew them in order to pay homage to devils.
Alas! alas! What vexation was this to the spirit of the Lord.
Verse
39. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a
whoring with their own inventions. Not only the land but the inhabitants of
it were polluted. They broke the marriage bond between them and the Lord, and
fell into spiritual adultery. The language is strong, but the offence could not
be fitly described in less forcible words. As a husband is deeply dishonoured
and sorely wounded should his wife become unchaste and run riot with many
paramours in his own house, so was the Lord incensed at his people for setting
up gods many and lords many in his own land. They made and invented new gods,
and then worshipped what they had made. What a folly! Their novel deities were
loathsome monsters and cruel demons, and yet they paid them homage. What
wickedness! And to commit this folly and wickedness they cast off the true God,
whose miracles they had seen, and whose people they were. This was provocation
of the severest sort.
Verses
40. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people,
in so much that he abhorred his own inheritance. Not that even then he
broke his covenant or utterly cast off his offending people, but he felt the
deepest indignation, and even looked upon them with abhorrence. The feeling
described is like to that of a husband who still loves his guilty wife, and yet
when he thinks of her lewdness feels his whole nature rising in righteous anger
at her, so that the very sight of her afflicts his soul. How far the divine
wrath can burn against those whom he yet loves in his heart it were hard to
say, but certainly Israel pushed the experiment to the extreme. And he gave
them into the hand of the heathen. This was the manifestation of his
abhorrence. He gave them a taste of the result of sin; they spared the heathen,
mixed with them and imitated them, and soon they had to smart from them, for
hordes of invaders were let loose upon them to spoil them at their pleasure.
Men make rods for their own backs. Their own inventions become their
punishments. And they that hated them ruled over them. And who could wonder?
Sin never creates true love. They joined the heathen in their wickedness, and
they did not win their hearts, but rather provoked their contempt. If we mix with
men of the world they will soon become our masters and our tyrants, and we
cannot want worse.
Verse
42. Their enemies also oppressed them. This was according to
their nature; an Israelite always fares ill at the hands of the heathen.
Leniency to Canaan turned out to be cruelty to themselves. And they were
brought into subjection under their hand. They were bowed down by laborious
bondage, and made to lie low under tyranny. In their God they had found a kind
master, but in those with whom they had perversely sought fellowship they found
despots of the most barbarous sort. He who leaves his God leaves happiness for
misery. God can make our enemies to be rods in his hands to flog us back to our
best Friend.
Verse
43. Many times did he deliver them. By reading the book of
Judges we shall see how truthful is this sentence: again and again their foes
were routed, and they were set free again, only to return with rigour to their
former evil ways. But they provoked him with their counsel. With deliberation
they agreed to transgress anew; self will was their counsellor, and they
followed it to their own destruction. And were brought low for their iniquity.
Worse and worse were the evils brought upon them, lower and lower they fell in
sin, and consequently in sorrow. In dens and caves of the earth they hid
themselves; they were deprived of all warlike weapons, and were utterly
despised by their conquerors; they were rather a race of serfs than of free men
until the Lord in mercy raised them up again. Could we but fully know the
horrors of the wars which desolated Palestine, and the ravages which caused
famine and starvation, we should shudder at the sins which were thus rebuked.
Deeply engrained in their nature must the sin of idolatry have been, or they
would not have returned to it with such persistence in the teeth of such
penalties; we need not marvel at this, there is a still greater wonder, man
prefers sin and hell to heaven and God. The lesson to ourselves, as God's
people, is to walk humbly and carefully before the Lord and above all to keep
ourselves from idols. Woe unto those who become partakers of Rome's idolatries,
for they will be joined with her in her plagues. May grace be given to us to
keep the separated path, and remain undefiled with the fornication of the
scarlet harlot of Babylon.
Verse
44. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their
cry. Notwithstanding all these provoking rebellions and detestable
enormities the Lord still heard their prayer and pitied them. This is very
wonderful, very godlike. One would have thought that the Lord would have shut
out their prayer, seeing they had shut their ears against his admonitions; but
no, he had a father's heart, and a sight of their sorrows touched his soul, the
sound of their cries overcame his heart, and he looked upon them with
compassion. His fiercest wrath towards his own people is only a temporary
flame, but his love burns on for ever like the light of his own immortality.
Verse
45. And he remembered for them his covenant. The covenant is
the sure foundation of mercy, and when the whole fabric of outward grace
manifested in the saints lies in ruins this is the fundamental basis of love
which is never moved, and upon it the Lord proceeds to build again a new
structure of grace. Covenant mercy is sure as the throne of God. And repented
according to the multitude of his mercies. He did not carry out the destruction
which he had commenced. Speaking after the manner of men he changed his mind,
and did not leave them to their enemies to be utterly cut off, because he saw
that his covenant would in such a case have been broken. The Lord is so full of
grace that he has not only mercy but mercies, yea a multitude of them, and
these hive in the covenant and treasure up good for the erring sons of men.
Verse
46. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them
captives. Having the hearts of all men in his hands he produced compassion
even in heathen bosoms. Even as he found Joseph friends in Egypt, so did he
raise up sympathizers for his captive servants. In our very worst condition our
God has ways and means for allaying the severity of our sorrows: he can find us
helpers among those who have been our oppressors, and he will do so if we be
indeed his people.
Verse
47. This is the closing prayer, arranged by prophecy for those
who would in future time be captives, and suitable for all who before David's
days had been driven from home by the tyranny of the various scatterings by
famine and distress which had happened in the iron age of the judges. Save us,
O Lord our God. The mention of the covenant encouraged the afflicted to call
the Lord their God, and this enabled them with greater boldness to entreat him
to interpose on their behalf and rescue them. And gather us from among the Heathen.
Weary now of the ungodly and their ways, they long to be brought into their own
separated country, where they might again enjoy the means of grace, enter into
holy fellowship with their brethren, escape from contaminating examples, and be
free to wait upon the Lord. How often do true believers now a days long to be
removed from ungodly households, where their souls are vexed with the
conversation of the wicked. To give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph
in thy praise. Weaned from idols, they desire to make mention of Jehovah's name
alone, and to ascribe their mercies to his ever abiding faithfulness and love.
The Lord had often saved them for his holy name's sake, and therefore they feel
that when again restored they would render all their gratitude to that saving
name, yea, it should be their glory to praise Jehovah and none else.
Verse
48. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting.
Has not his mercy endured for ever, and should not his praise be of like
duration? Jehovah, the God of Israel, has blessed his people, should they not
also bless him? And let all the people say, Amen. They have all seen spared by
his grace, let them all join in the adoration with loud unanimous voice. What a
thunder of praise would thus be caused! Yet should a nation thus magnify him,
yea, should all the nations past and present unite in the solemn acclaim, it
mould fall far short of his deserts. O for the happy day when all flesh shall
see the glory of God, and all shall aloud proclaim his praise.
Praise
ye the LORD, or "Hallelujah."
Reader, praise thou the Lord, as he who writes this feeble exposition now
does with his whole heart.
"Now blest, for ever blest, be He,
The same throughout eternity,
Our Israel's God adored!
Let all the people join the lay,
And loudly, `Hallelujah', say,
`Praise ye the living Lord!'"
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse
1. For he is good; essentially, solely and originally; is
communicative and diffusive of his goodness; is the author of all good and no evil;
and is gracious and merciful and ready to forgive. John Gill.
Verse
1. For he is good: for his goodness endureth for ever. Observe here
what is a true and perfect confession of the divine goodness. Whenever God so
blesses his own people that his goodness is perceived by carnal sense, in
bestowing riches, honours, peace, health and things of that kind, then it is
easy to acknowledge that God is good, and that acknowledgment can be made by
the most carnal men. The case stands otherwise when he visits offenders with
the rod of correction and scourges them with the grace of chastisement. Then
the flesh hardly bears to confess what by its own sense it does not perceive.
It fails to discern the goodness of God unto salvation in the severity of the
rod and the scourging, and therefore refuses to acknowledge that goodness in
strokes and sufferings. The prophet, however, throughout this Psalm celebrates
in many instances the way wherein the sinning people were arrested and smitten.
And when he proposed that this Psalm should be sung in the church of God,
Israel was under the cross and afflictions. Yet he demands that Israel should
acknowledge that the Lord is good, that his mercy endureth for ever, even in
the act of smiting the offender. That therefore alone is a true and full
confession of the divine goodness which is made not only in prosperity but also
in adversity. Musculus.
Verse
1. There is,
1.
The doxology;
2.
Invitation;
3.
The reason that we should, and why we should, give thanks always;
4.
The greatness of the work. But "who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD?
who can shew forth all his praise?" That is, it is impossible for any man
in the world to do this great duty aright, as he should.
5.
The best mode and method of giving thanks. "Blessed are they that keep
judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times." As if he had
said, "This is indeed a vast duty; but yet he makes the best essay towards
it that sets himself constantly to serve God and keep his commandments."—William
Cooper, in the "Morning Exercises."
Verse
1. The first and two last verses of this psalm form a part of that
psalm which David delivered into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to be sung
before the ark of the covenant, after it was brought from the house of Obededom
to Mount Zion. See 1Ch 16:34-36. Hence it has been ascribed to the pen of
David. Many of the ancients thought, and they are followed by Horsley and
Mudge, that it was written during the captivity; resting their opinion chiefly
on verse 47; but as that verse occurs in the Psalm of David recorded in 1Ch
16:35, this argument is clearly without force. James Anderson's Note to
Calvin in loc.
Verse
2. Who can utter? etc. This verse is susceptible of two
interpretations; for if you read it in connection with the one immediately
following, the sense will be, that all men are not alike equal to the task of
praising God, because the ungodly and the wicked do nothing else than profane
his holy name with their unclean lips; as it is said in the fiftieth psalm: "But
unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that
thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?" And hence to this sentence
the following clause should have been annexed, in the form of a reply,
"Blessed are they that keep judgment." I am of opinion, however, that
the prophet had another design, namely, that there is no man who has ever
endeavoured to concentrate all his energies, both physical and mental, in the
praising of God, but will find himself inadequate for so lofty a subject, the
transcendant grandeur of which overpowers all our senses. Not that he exalts
the power of God designedly to deter us from celebrating its praises, but
rather as the means of stirring us up to do so to the utmost of our power. Is
it any reason for ceasing our exertions, that with whatever alacrity we pursue
our course, we yet come far short of perfection? But the thing which ought to
inspire us with the greatest encouragement is the knowledge that, though
ability may fail us, the praises which from the heart we offer to God are
pleasing to him; only let us beware of callousness; for it would certainly be
very absurd for those who cannot attain to a tithe of perfection, to make that
the occasion of their not reaching to the hundredth part of it. John Calvin.
Verse
2. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? etc. Our sight
fails us when we look upon the sun, overpowered by the splendour of his ways;
and the mind's eye suffers the like in every meditation on God, and the more
attention is bestowed in thinking of God, the more is the mental vision blinded
by the very light of its own thoughts. For what canst thou say of him, what, I
repeat, canst thou adequately say of him, who is more sublime than all
loftiness, and more exalted than all height, and deeper than all depth, and
clearer than all light, and brighter than all brightness, and more splendid
than all splendour, stronger than all strength, more vigorous than all vigour,
fairer than all beauty, truer than all truth, and more puissant than puissance,
and greater than all majesty, and mightier than all might, richer than all
riches, wiser than all wisdom, gentler than all gentleness, more just than all
justice, more merciful than all mercy?—Tertullian, quoted by Neale and
Littledale.
Verse
2. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? etc. This may
be resolved either into a negation or restriction. Few or none can "utter
the mighty acts of the LORD, "can "show forth all his praise";
few can do it in an acceptable manner, and none can do it in a perfect manner.
And indeed it is not unusual in Scripture for such kind of interrogations to
amount unto either a negation, or at least an expression of the rareness and
difficulty of the thing spoken of: 1Co 2:16 Ps 92:1 Isa 53:1. Without a full
confession of mercies it is not possible to make either a due valuation of
them, or a just requital of them. And how impossible a thing it is fully to
recount mercies, you may see by Ps 40:5; "Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are toward us:
they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of
them, they are more than can be numbered."—Henry Jeanes, in "The
Works of Heaven upon Earth," 1649.
Verse
2. Mighty acts of the Lord. Or powers, to which
answers the Greek word for the miracles of Christ (Mt 11:20,21), and Kimchi
here restrains them to the wonders wrought in Egypt and at the Red Sea; but
they may as well be extended to the mighty acts of God, and the effects of his
power, in the creation of all things out of nothing; in the sustentation and
government of the world; in the redemption of his people by Christ; in the
conversion of sinners, and in the final perseverance of the saints; in all
which there are such displays of the power of God as cannot be uttered and
declared by mortal tongues. John Gill.
Verse
3. Blessed are they that keep judgment, etc. That are of right
principles and upright practices; this is real and substantial praising of God.
Thanks doing is the proof of thanksgiving; and the good life of the thankful is
the life of thankfulness. Those that thank God only, and no more, are not only
contumelious, but injurious. John Trapp.
Verse
3. Keep judgment; doeth righteousness. I doubt not that there is
some difference; viz. that he is said to keep judgment who judgeth rightly, but
he to do righteousness who acts righteously. Augustine.
Verse
3. I have read of Louis, king of France, that when he had through
inadvertency granted an unjust suit, as soon as ever he had read those words of
the Psalmist, "Blessed is he that doeth righteousness at all times,
"he presently recollected himself, and upon better thoughts gave his
judgment quite contrary. Thomas Brooks.
Verse
4. O visit me. This is a beautiful figure. The prayer is not, "Give me a
more intense desire, increased energy of action, that I may please thee, that I
may serve thee, that I may go step by step up to thee, every step bringing with
it is fresh sense of meritorious claim upon thee". No such thing. It is
"Visit me"; "descend down upon me" daily from thine own
lofty throne, for the fulfilment of thine own purposes. "Visit me". George
Fisk, 1851.
Verse
4. O visit me with thy salvation. Hugo takes the visit of
God as that of a physician of whom healing of the eyes is sought, because it is
immediately added, "That I may see", etc. Lorinus.
Verse
4. There is an ancient Jewish gloss which is noteworthy, that the
petition is for a share in the resurrection in the days of Messiah in order to
see his wonderful restoration of his suffering people. Neale and Littledale.
Verse
5. We may note that the threefold nature of man prompts the union
of the three petitions of this verse in one. "That I may see, " is
the prayer of the body, desiring the open vision of God; "and rejoice,
"is the wish of the soul or mind, that the affections may likewise be
gratified; and vice thanks, as the spirit needs to pour itself out in worship.
Further, there are three names here given to the saints, each for a reason of
its own. They are God's "chosen, " because of his predestinating
grace, "according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Eph
1:4); they are his "nation, "having one law and one worship under him
as sole king, "And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and
judgments so righteous as all this law?" (De 4:8) they are his
"inheritance, "for it is written, "I shall give the heathen for
thine inheritance" (Ps 2:8). Hugo Cardinalis and Albertus Magnus,
in Neale and Littledale.
Verse
5. That I may see the good of thy chosen. That, having
been predestined, and justified, we may come to see the good of thy chosen,
which means that the very face of the Lord may be made conspicuous to us. (1Jo
3:2). By the "good of thy chosen" we are not to understand their own
probity or goodness, but the supreme happiness that is their lot. "That I
may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation." That we may partake in that
unspeakable joy which arises from the beatific vision, which is the peculiar
property of the chosen people, of which strangers cannot taste, of which the
gospel says, "Enter into the joy of thy Lord."—Robert Bellarmine,
1542-1621.
Verse
6. We have sinned with our fathers. Let us look a little
further back, to find the age of sin; even as far as the original, from whence
comes all the copy of imitation. Be they never so new in act, they are old in
example: "We have sinned with our fathers." God tells them they had
rebelled of old; "As your fathers did, so do ye" (Ac 8:51). Antiquity
is no infallible argument of goodness: though Tertullian says the first things
were the best things; and the less they distanced from the beginning, the
poorer they were; but he must be understood only of holy customs. For iniquity
can plead antiquity: he that commits a new act of murder finds it old in the
example of Cain; drunkenness may be fetched from Noah; contempt of parents from
Ham; women's lightness from the daughters of Lot. There is no sin but hath
white hairs upon it, and is exceeding old. But let us look further back yet,
even to Adam; there is the age of sin. This is that St. Paul calls the old man;
it is almost as old as the root, but older than all the branches. Therefore our
restitution by Christ to grace is called the new man. Thomas Adams.
Verse
6. We have sinned with our fathers. It enhances the sin
considerably by adding "with our fathers." He would have seemed to
extenuate, not exaggerate, if he had said, We have sinned with other mortals.
But by saying, We have sinned with our fathers, he by no means lessens but
aggravates their offences, while he thereby extols the goodness of God who
blessed not only those who acted sinfully and impiously, but also the children
and descendants of the sinful and impious, even those whom he could with the
highest justice have cut off as doubly detestable. Musculus.
Verse
6. Sinned; committed iniquity; done wickedly. The Rabbins
tell us that there are three kinds and degrees of sin here set down in an
ascending scale; against one's self, against one's neighbour, against God; sins
of ignorance, sins of conscious deliberation, sins of pride and wickedness. R.
Levi and Genebrardus, in Neale and Littledale.
Verse
6. Though the writers of the Scriptures were by divine inspiration
infallibly preserved from extravagance, yet they use every appropriate variety
of strong and condemnatory language against sin (Ps 106:6). Surely moral evil
cannot be a trifle. Yet it breaks forth on all occasions and on all hands.
Sometimes it is in the form of forgetfulness of God (Ps 106:13,21), sometimes
of rash impetuosity towards evil (Ps 106:13), sometimes of strong, imperious
lusts (Ps 106:14), sometimes of vile unbelief (Ps 106:12,24), and so of the
whole catalogue of offences against God and man. O how vile we are!—William
S. Plumer.
Verse
7. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. Though the
elders went along with Moses, and heard him shew his commission to Pharaoh, and
make his demands in the name of the Lord to let Israel go, (Ex 3:16); yea, and
they saw the judgments of God on Egypt; yet "they did not understand"
that these wonders would do the work of their deliverance. At first they
thought it was worse with them. Much less did they understand, that their
deliverance should be a type of eternal deliverance, that God would be their
God, as after is explained in the preface to the ten commandments. And because
they "understood not his wonders, "therefore they "remembered
not his mercies." A shallow understanding causeth a short memory. Nathaniel
Homes, 1652.
Verse
7. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. It is more
than probable, that many of the Israelites ascribed most of these wonders to
the skill of Moses transcending that of the Egyptian magicians or to his
working by the assistance of a higher and more potent spirit than that which
assisted them. Or, in case they did believe them to have been the effects of a
Divine Power, yet they did not inure their minds seriously to consider it, so
as to have a standing awe of that power imprinted upon their hearts by such a
consideration: and he that considers great and important matters superficially,
in the language of the Scripture, does not understand them. Robert South.
Verse
7. Understood not...remembered not. He reproveth both their
understanding and memory. Understanding there was need of; that they might
meditate unto what eternal blessings God was calling them through these
temporal ones; and of memory, that at least they might not forget the temporal
wonders which had been wrought, and might faithfully believe, that by the same
power which they had already experienced, God would free them from the
persecution of their enemies; whereas they forgot the aid which he had given
them in Egypt, by means of such wonders, to crush their enemies. Augustine.
Verse
7. One sin is a step to another more heinous; for not observing, is
followed with not remembering, and forgetfulness of duty draweth on
disobedience and rebellion. David Dickson.
Verse
7. They provoked him. To provoke, is an expression setting forth a
peculiar and more than ordinary degree of misbehaviour, and seems to import an
insolent daring resolution to offend. A resolution not contented with one
single stroke of disobedience, but such a one as multiplies and repeats the
action, till the offence greatens, and rises into an affront; and as it relates
to God, so I conceive it as aimed at him in a threefold respect. First, of his
power. Secondly, of his goodness. Thirdly, of his patience.
First.
And first it rises up against the power and prerogative of God. It is, as it
were, an assault upon God sitting upon his throne, a snatching at his sceptre,
and a defiance of his very royalty and supremacy. He that provokes God does in
a manner dare him to strike, and to revenge the injury and invasion upon his
honour. He considers not the weight of God's almighty arm, and the edge of his
sword, the swiftness and poison of his arrows, but puffs at all, and looks the
terrors of sin revenging justice in the face. The Israelites could not sin
against God, after those miracles in Egypt, without a signal provocation of
that power that they had so late, and so convincing an experience of: a power
that could have crushed an Israelite as easily as an Egyptian; and given as
terrible an instance of its consuming force upon false friends, as upon
professed enemies; in the sight of God, perhaps, the less sort of offenders of
the two.
Secondly.
Provoking God imports an abuse of his goodness. God, as he is clothed with
power, is the proper object of our fear; but as he displays his goodness, of
our love. By one he would command, by the other he would win and (as it were)
court our obedience. And an affront to his goodness, his tenderness, and his
mercy, as much exceeds an affront of his power as a wound at the heart
transcends a blow on the hand. For when God shall show miracles of mercy, step
out of the common road of providence, commanding the host of heaven, the globe
of the earth, and the whole system of nature out of its course, to serve a design
of goodness upon a people, as he did upon the Israelites; was not a
provocation, after such obliging passages, infinitely base and insufferable,
and a degree of ingratitude, higher than the heavens struck at, and deeper than
the sea that they passed through?
Thirdly.
Provoking God imports an affront upon his longsuffering, and his patience. The
movings of nature in the breasts of mankind, tell us how keenly, how
regretfully, every man resents the abuse of his love; how hardly any prince,
but one, can put up an offence against his acts of mercy; and how much more
affrontive it is to despise majesty ruling by the golden sceptre of pardon,
than by the iron rod of penal law. But now patience is a further and an higher
advance of mercy; it is mercy drawn out at length; mercy wrestling with
baseness, and striving, if possible, even to weary and outdo ingratitude; and
therefore a sin against this is the highest pitch, the utmost improvement, and,
as I may so speak, the ne plus ultra of provocation. For when patience
shall come to be tired, and even out of breath with pardoning, let all the
invention of mankind find something further, either upon which an offender may
cast his hope, or against which he can commit a sin. But it was God's patience
the ungrateful Israelites sinned against; for they even plied and pursued him
with sin upon sin, one offence following and thronging upon the neck of
another, the last account still rising highest, and swelling bigger, till the
treasures of grace and pardon were so far drained and exhausted, that they
provoked God to swear, and what is more, to swear in his wrath and with a full
purpose of revenge, that they should never enter into his rest. Robert
South.
Verse
7. They provoked him. Wherein lay their provocation? They remembered
not the multitude of his mercies:the former mercies of the Lord did not
strengthen their trust in present troubles; that was one provocation. And as
former mercies did not strengthen their trust, so the present troubles drew out
their distrust, as another Scripture assures, reporting their behaviour in it
(Ex 14:11): "And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in
Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou
dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? "What were these
fearful forecasts, these amazing bodements of an unavoidable (as they
apprehended) ruin, but the overflowing of unbelief, or distrust in God; and
this was another provocation. Former mercies are forgotten, yea, eaten up by
unbelief, as the seven lean kine in Pharaoh's dream, eat up the fat ones, and
present difficulties are aggravated by unbelief, as if all the power of God
could not remove and overcome them. And will not the Lord (think you) visit in
anger such a sin as this?—Joseph Caryl.
Verse
7. At the Red Sea. That is to say, at the Arabian Gulf:
literally, at the Sea of Suph, which, if Suph be not here a proper name, (as it
seems to be in De 1:1, and, with a slight variation, in Nu 31:14) means the sea
of weeds, and that sea is still called by a similar name, in modern Egypt. Its
designation, throughout the books of the Old Testament, is in the Syriac
version, and the Chaldee Paraphrased, likewise rendered the sea of weeds; which
name may have been derived from the reeds growing near its shore: or from the
weeds, or coralline productions, seen through its waters, and the corals seen
at its bottom...Pliny states, that it is called the Red Sea from King Erythras,
or from the reflection of a red colour by the sun, or from its sand and its
ground, or form the nature of its water. Daniel Cresswell.
Verses
7-8. This psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving, as the first and last
verses declare. Now because a man is most fit to praise God when he is most
sensible of his own sin and unworthiness; the psalmist doth throughout this
psalm lay Israel's sin and God's mercy together. Ps 106:7. Our Fathers (says
he) understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They saw them with their eyes,
but they did not understand them with their heart: they did not apprehend the
design and scope and end of God in those wonders: and therefore, "they
remembered not (says the text) thy mercies; for a man remembers no more
than he understands."
But
it may be these mercies were very few, and so their sin in forgetfulness the
less? Nay, not so, Ps 106:7, They remembered not the multitude of thy
mercies.
But
it may be this was their infirmity or weakness, and so they were rather to be
borne withal? Not so, but they rebelled against him; so Montanus reads
it better.
But
it may be this sin was committed whilst they were in Egypt, or among the
Egyptians, being put on by them? Not so neither, but when they were come out of
Egypt, and only had to deal with God, and saw his glorious power at the Red
Sea, then they rebelled against him, at the sea, even at the Red Sea.
What,
then, did not the Lord destroy them? No says the text, Notwithstanding,
all their grievance, unthankfulness, and their rebellion, he saved them for
his name's sake. William Bridge, in a Sermon preached before the House of
Commons, Nov. 5, 1647.
Verse
8. Nevertheless he saved them. If God should not shew mercy
to his people with a nevertheless, how should the glory of his mercy
appear? If a physician should only cure a man that hath the headache or the
toothache; one that hath taken cold, or some small disease; it would not argue
any great skill and excellency in the physician. But when a man is nigh unto
death, hath one foot in the grave, or is, in the eye of reason, past all
recovery; if then the physician cure him, it argues much the skill and
excellency of that physician. So now, if God should only cure, and save a
people that were less evil and wicked; or that were good indeed, where should
the excellence of mercy appear? But when a people shall be drawing near to death,
lying bed ridden, as it were, and the Lord out of his free love, for his own
name's sake, shall rise, and cure such an unworthy people, this sets out the
glory of his mercy. It is said in the verse precedent, "They rebelled at
the sea, even at the Red Sea", or, as in the Hebrew, "even in
the Red Sea; "when the waters stood like walls on both sides of them; when
they saw those walls of waters that never people saw before, and saw the power,
the infinite power of God leading them through on dry land; then did
they rebel, at the sea, even in the sea; and yet for all this the Lord
saved them with a notwithstanding all this. And I say, shall the Lord
put forth so much of grace upon a people, that were under the law; and not put
forth much more of his grace upon those that are under the gospel?—William
Bridge.
Verse
8. For his name's sake. Improve his name in every case; for
he hath a name suiting every want, every need. Do you need wonders to be
wrought for you? His name is Wonderful; look to him so to do, for his name's
sake. Do you need counsel and direction? His name is the Counsellor: cast
yourself on him and his name for this. Have you mighty enemies to debate with?
His name is the Mighty God; seek that he may exert his power for his name's
sake. Do you need his fatherly pity? His name is the everlasting Father;
"As a Father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him." Plead his pity, for his name's sake. Do you need peace external,
internal, or eternal? His name is the Prince of Peace; seek for his name's
sake, that he may create peace. O sirs, his name is JEHOVAH ROPHI, the Lord,
the healer and physician; seek, for his name's sake, that he may heal all your
diseases. Do you need pardon? His name is JEHOVAH TSlDKENU, the Lord our
righteousness: seek, for his name's sake, that he may be merciful to your
unrighteousness. Do you need defence and protection? His name is JEHOVAH NISSI,
the Lord your banner; seek, for his name's sake, that his banner of love and
grace may be spread over you. Do you need provision in extreme want? His name
is JEHOVAH JIREH, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, the Lord will
provide. Do you need his presence? His name is JEHOVAH SHAMMAH, the Lord is
there: IMMANUEL, God with us: look to him to be with you, for his name's sake.
Do you need audience of prayer? His name is the Hearer of prayer. Do you need
strength? His name is the Strength of Israel. Do you need comfort? His name is
the Consolation of Israel. Do you need shelter? His name is the City of Refuge.
Have you nothing and need all His name is All in all. Sit down and devise names
to your wants and needs, and you will find he hath a name suitable thereunto;
for your supply, he hath wisdom to guide you; and power to keep you; mercy to
pity you; truth to shield you; holiness to sanctify you; righteousness to
justify you; grace to adorn you; and glory to crown you. Trust in his name, who
saves for his name's sake. Ralph Erskine, 1685-1752.
Verse
9. He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up. A
poetical expression, signifying that the Red Sea retired at God's command, just
as a slave would fly from his master's presence on being severely rebuked. Robert
Bellarmine.
Verse
9. He rebuked. We do not read that any voice was sent forth
from heaven to rebuke the sea; but he hath called the Divine Power by which
this was effected, a rebuke, unless indeed any one may choose to say, that the
sea was secretly rebuked, so that the waters might hear, and yet men could not.
The power by which God acts is very abstruse and mysterious, a power by which
he causeth that even things devoid of sense instantly obey at his will. Augustine.
Verse
9. Wilderness. Midbar; a broad expanse of poor dry land,
suited for sheep walks (like our South Downs, or Salisbury Plain). Compare Isa
43:13. William Kay.
Verse
11. There was not one of them left. An emblem this of the
utter destruction of all our spiritual enemies by Christ, who has not only
saved us from them, but has entirely destroyed them; he has made an end of sin,
even of all the sins of his people; he has spoiled Satan, and his
principalities and powers; he has abolished death, the last enemy, and made his
saints more than conquerors over all. Likewise it may be a representation of
the destruction of the wicked at the last day, who will all be burnt up at the
general conflagration, root and branch, not one will be left. See Mal 4:1. John
Gill.
Verse
12. Then believed they his words. There is a temporary faith,
as Mark calls it in (Mr 4:17), which is not so much a fruit of the Spirit of
regeneration, as of a certain mutable affection, and so it soon passeth away.
It is not a voluntary faith which is here extolled by the prophet, but rather
that which is the result of compulsion, namely, because men, whether they will
or not, by a sense which they have of the power of God, are constrained to show
some reverence for him. This passage ought to be well considered, that men,
when once they have yielded submission to God, may not deceive themselves, but
may know that the touchstone of faith is when they spontaneously receive the
word of God, and constantly continue firm in their obedience to it. John
Calvin.
Verse
12. Natural affections raised high in a profession of religion will
withstand temptations for a fit, but wait till the stream runs lower, and you
will see. What a fit of affection had the Israelites when their eyes had seen
that miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea! What songs of rejoicing had they!
what resolves never to distrust him again! Then believed they his words;
they sang his praise. Satan doth not presently urge them to murmuring and
unbelief, though that was his design, but he staid till the fit was over, and
then he could soon tempt them to forget his works. Richard Gilpin in "A
Treatise of Satan's Temptations," 1677.
Verse
12. In the very brevity of this verse, the only one of its kind in
the narrative portion of the psalm, we may well see how short lived were their
gratitude, belief, and worship of God; as it follows at once, They soon
forgat, etc. Neale and Littledale.
Verses
12-13. They sang his praise. They soon forgat his works. This was said
of that generation of the Israelites, which came out of Egypt. The chapter
which contains the portion of their history here alluded to, begins with
rapturous expressions of gratitude, and ends with the murmurs of discontent;
both uttered by the same lips, within the short space of three days. Their
expressions of gratitude were called forth by that wonderful display of the
divine perfections, which delivered them from the host of Pharaoh, and
destroyed their enemies. Their murmurs were excited by a comparatively trifling
inconvenience, which in a few hours was removed. Of persons whose thanksgivings
were so quickly, and so easily changed to murmurings, it might well be said,—though
they sang God's praises, "they soon forgat his works."
Unhappily, the Israelites are by no means the only persons of whom this may, in
truth, be said. Their conduct, as here described, affords a striking
exemplification of that spurious gratitude, which often bursts forth in a
sudden flash, when dreaded evils are averted, or unexpected favours bestowed;
but expires with the occasion that gave it birth; a gratitude resembling the
joy excited in an infant's breast by the gift of some glittering toy, which is
received with rapture, and pleases for an hour; but when the charm of novelty
vanishes, is thrown aside with indifference; and the hand that bestowed it is
forgotten. Springing from no higher principle than gratified self love, it is
neither acceptable to God, nor productive of obedience to his laws; nor does it
in any respect really resemble that holy, heaven born affection, whose language
it often borrows, and whose name it assumes. It may be called, distinctively,
the gratitude of sinners; who, as they love those that love them, will of
course be grateful to those that are kind to them; grateful even to God when
they view him as kind.
Of
these instances, the first which I shall notice is furnished by the works of creation;
or, as they are often, though not very properly, called, the works of nature.
In so impressive a manner do these works present themselves to our senses; so
much of variety, and beauty, and sublimity do they exhibit; such power, and
wisdom, and goodness do they display; that perhaps no man, certainly no man who
possesses the smallest share of sensibility, taste, or mental cultivation, can,
at all times, view them without emotion; without feelings of awe, or wonder, or
admiration, or delight. But, alas, how transient, how unproductive of salutary
effects, have all these emotions proved? Appetite and passion, though hushed
for a moment, soon renewed their importunities; the glitter of wealth and
distinction, and power, eclipsed, in our view, the glories of Jehovah; we sunk
from that heaven toward which we seemed rising, to plunge afresh into the
vortex of earthly pleasures and pursuits; we neglected and disobeyed him, whom
we had been ready to adore; and continued to live without God, in a world which
we had just seen to be full of his glory. A second instance of a similar nature
is afforded by the manner in which men are often affected by God's works of providence.
In these works his perfections are so constantly, and often so clearly
displayed; our dependence on them is at all times so real, and sometimes so
apparent; and they bear, in many eases, so directly and evidently upon our
dearest temporal interests, that even the most insensible cannot, always,
regard them with indifference.
But
the feeling is usually transient; and the acknowledgment is forgotten almost as
soon as it is made. In a similar manner are men often affected by God's works
of grace; or those works whose design and tendency it is, to promote the
spiritual and eternal interests of man. These works most clearly display, not
only the natural, but the moral perfections of Jehovah. Here his character
shines, full-orbed and complete. That an exhibition of these wonders should
make, at least, a temporary impression upon our minds, is no more than might
naturally be expected. For a moment our hearts seem to be melted. We feel, and
are ready to acknowledge, that God is good; that the Saviour is kind; that his
love ought to be returned; that heaven is desirable! Like a class of hearers
described by one great Teacher, we receive the word with joy; a joy not
unmingled with something which resembles gratitude; and we sing, or feel as if
we could with pleasure sing, God's praises. But we leave his house; the
emotions there excited subside; like the earth, when partially softened by a
wintry sun, our hearts soon regain their icy hardness; the wonders of divine
grace are forgotten; and God has reason to say in sorrow and displeasure,—Your
goodness is as the morning cloud; and as the early dew it goeth away. Condensed
from a Sermon by Edward Payson, 1783-1827.
Verse
13. They soon forgat his works. They forgat, yea, "soon";
they made haste to forget, so the original is: "They made haste, they
forgat." Like men that in sleep shake Death by the hand, but when they are
awake they will not know him. Thomas Adams.
Verse
13. How may we know that we are rightly thankful? When we are careful
to register God's mercy, 1Ch 16:4: "David appointed certain of the
Levites, to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel."
Physicians say the memory is the first thing that decays; it is true in
spirituals: "They soon forgat his works."—Thomas Watson.
Verse
13. They soon forgat. As it is with a sieve or boulter, the
good corn and fine flour goes through, but the light chaff and coarse bran remains
behind; or as a strainer, that the sweet liquor is strained out, but the dregs
are left behind: or as a grate, that lets the pure water run away, but if there
be any straws, sticks, mud, or filth, that it holds. Thus it is with most men's
memories; by nature they are but, as it were, pertusa dolia, mere river
tubs, especially in good things very treacherous, so that the vain conceits of
men are apt to be held in, when divine instructions and gracious promises run
through; trifles and toys, and worldly things, they are apt to remember,
tenacious enough; but for spiritual things they leak out; like Israel, they
soon forget them. William Gouge.
Verse
13. They soon forgat his works. Three days afterwards, at the
waters of Marah (Ex 15:24). Adam Clarke.
Verse
13. They waited not. The insatiable nature of our desires is
astonishing, in that scarcely a single day is allowed to God to gratify them.
For should he not immediately satisfy them, we at once become impatient, and
are in danger of eventually falling into despair. This, then, was the fault of
the people, that they did not cast all their cares upon God, did not calmly
call upon him, nor wait patiently until he was pleased to answer their
requests, but rushed forward with reckless precipitation, as if they would
dictate to God what he was to do. And, therefore, to heighten the criminality
of their rash course, he employs the term counsel; because men will
neither allow God to be possessed of wisdom, nor do they deem it proper to
depend upon his counsel, but are more provident than becomes them, and would
rather rule God than allow themselves to be ruled by him according to his
pleasure. That we may be preserved from provoking God, let us ever retain this
principle, That it is our duty to let him provide for us such things as he
knows will be for our advantage. And verily, faith divesting us of our own
wisdom, enables us hopefully and quietly to wait until God accomplishes his own
work; whereas, on the contrary, our carnal desire always goes before the counsel
of God, by its too great haste. John Calvin.
Verse
13. They waited not. They ought to have thought, that so great
works of God towards themselves were not without a purpose, but that they
invited them to some endless happiness, which was to be waited for with
patience; but they hastened to make themselves happy with temporal things,
which give no man true happiness, because they do not quench insatiable
longing: "for whosoever", saith our Lord, "shall drink of this
water, shall thirst again." Joh 4:13. Augustine.
Verse
13. They waited not for his counsel. Which neglect of theirs
may be understood two ways. First, that they waited not for his open or
declared counsel, to direct them what to do, but without asking his advice
would needs venture and run on upon their own heads, to do what seemed good in
their own eyes. Secondly, that they waited not for the accomplishment of his
hidden and secret counsel concerning them; they would not tarry God's time for
the bringing forth and bringing about his counsels. Not to wait upon God either
way is very sinful. Not to wait for his counsel to direct us what to do, and
not to wait for his doing or fulfilling his own counsel, argues at once a proud
and an impatient spirit; in the one, men so even slight the wisdom of God, and
in the other vainly presume and attempt to prevent his providence. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse
13. They waited not for his counsel. A believer acting his
faith, hath great advantage of an unbeliever. An unbeliever is froward and
passionate, and heady and hasty, when he is put to plunge; he waits not for
the counsel of God. He leaps before he looks, before he hath eyes to see
his way; but a believer is quiet and confident, and silent and patient, and
prayerful, and standing upon his watch tower, to see what God will answer at
such a time. Matthew Lawrence, in "The Use and Practice of Faith,"
1657.
Verse
14. In the wilderness. When God by circumstances of time and
place doth call for moderation of carnal appetite, the transgression is more
heinous and offensive unto God: "They lusted exceedingly in the
wilderness", where they should have contented themselves with any sort of
provision. David Dickson.
Verse
14. In the wilderness. There, where they had bread enough
and to spare, yet nothing would serve them but they must have flesh to eat.
They were now purely at God's finding; so that this was a reflection
upon the wisdom and goodness of their Creator. They were now, in all
probability, within a step of Canaan, yet had not patience to stay for
dainties till they came thither. They had flocks and herds of their own,
but they will not kill them; God must give them flesh as he gave them bread, or
they will never give him credit or their good word: they did not only wish for
flesh, "but" they "lusted exceedingly" after it. A desire
even of lawful things, when it is inordinate and violent, becomes sinful; and
therefore this is called "lusting after evil things", (1Co 10:6),
though the quails as God's gift, were good things, and were so spoken of, Ps
105:40. Yet this was not all, "they tempted God in the desert", where
they had had such experience of his goodness and power, and questioned
whether he could and would gratify them therein. See Ps 78:19-20. Matthew
Henry.
Verse
15. And he gave them their request, etc. The throat's pleasure
did shut up paradise, sold the birthright, beheaded the Baptist, and it was the
chief of the cooks, Nebuzaradan, that first set fire to the temple, and razed
the city. These effects are,
1.
Grossness; which takes away agility to any good work; which makes a man more
like a tun upon two pottle pots. Caesar said he mistrusted not Antony and
Dolabella for any practices, because they were fat; but Casca and Cassius,
lean, hollow fellows, who did think too much. The other are the devil's crammed
fowls, too fat to lay. Indeed, what need they travel far, whose felicity is at
home; placing paradise in their throats, and heaven in their food?
2.
Macilency of grace; for as it puts fatness into their bodies, so leanness into
their souls. God fatted the Israelites with quails, but withal sent leanness
into their soul. The flesh is blown up, the spirit doth languish. They are
worse than man eaters, for they are self eaters: they put a pleurisy into their
bloods, and an apoplexy into their souls. Thomas Adams.
Verse
15. Sent leanness into their soul. God affords us as great means for
our increase in these Gospel times as ever he did; he puts us into fat
pastures, and well watered, Ps 23:1-6; therefore it is a shame for God's people
not to grow, not to "bring forth twins", as So 6:6. They should grow
twice as fast, bring forth twice as fast, bring forth twice as many lambs,
twice as much wool, twice as much milk, as those that go upon bare commons. All
the world may cry shame on such a man that is high fed, and often fed with fat
and sweet ordinances, if he be still like Pharaoh's lean kine, as lean and ill
favoured as ever he was before. Certainly, fat ordinances and lean souls do not
well agree. We are to look upon it as the greatest of judgments to have leanness
sent into our souls while we are fed with manna. We look on it as an
affliction to have an over lean body; but it's a far sadder condition to have a
lean soul. Of the two, it were far better to have a well thriving body and a
lean soul: it is a great mercy when both prosper, 3Jo 1:2: "I wish above
all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul
prospereth." Oh it is a sweet thing, especially to have a prospering soul,
and still upon the growing hand: and God expects it should be so, where he
affords good diet, great means of grace; as Da 1:10: "The prince of the
eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat
and your drink." If you should look ill, who fare so well, I should be sure
to bear the blame; it were so much as my head is worth. So certainly, where God
affords precious food for precious souls, if these souls be lean under fat
ordinances, either those that are fed, or those that feed them; either the
stewards or the household; either minister, or people, or both, are sure to
bear the blame. It is but equal and just that such should grow. We do not
wonder to see lean sheep upon bare commons, but when we see sheep continue lean
in fat pastures, we think their meat is ill bestowed on them; and therefore let
us strive to be on the growing hand. Matthew Lawrence.
Verse
15. Leanness is rendered "loathing" by Bishop
Horsley, which accords with the literal state of the case; but I think leanness,
as applied to the soul is exceedingly descriptive of its spiritual barrenness
and emptiness of aught like Divine tastes or enjoyments. Thomas Chalmers.
Verse
17. The earth opened, etc. This element was not used to such
morsels. It devours the carcases of men; but bodies informed with living souls,
never before. To have seen them struck dead upon the earth had been fearful;
but to see the earth at once their executioner and grave, was more horrible.
Neither the sea nor the earth are fit to give passage; the sea is moist and
flowing, and will not be divided, for the continuity of it; the earth is dry
and massy, and will neither yield naturally, nor meet again when it hath
yielded: yet the waters did cleave to give way unto Israel for their
preservation; the earth did cleave to give way to the conspirators in judgment;
both sea and earth did shut their jaws again upon the adversaries of God. There
was more wonder in this latter. It was a marvel that the waters opened; it was
no wonder that they shut again; for the retiring and flowing was natural. It
was no less marvel that the earth opened; but more marvel that it shut again;
because it had no natural disposition to meet when it was divided. Now might
Israel see they had to do with a God that could revenge with ease. There are
two sorts of traitors: the earth swallowed up the one, the fire the other. All
the elements agree to serve the vengeance of their Maker. Nadab and Abihu
brought fit persons, but unfit fire, to God; these Levites bring the right
fire, but unwarranted persons, before him: fire from God consumes both. It is a
dangerous thing to usurp sacred functions. The ministry will not grace the man;
the man may disgrace the ministry. Joseph Hall.
Verse
17. Dathan and Abiram only are mentioned, and this in strict
agreement with Nu 26:11, where it is said, "the children of Korah
died not." And the same thing is at least implied in Nu 16:27,
where it is said, that, just before the catastrophe took place, "Dathan
and Abiram" (there is no mention of Korah) "came out and stood in the
door of their tents." See this noticed and accounted for in Blunt's Veracity
of the Books of Moses, Part 1, 20 pounds, 86. J.J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse
19. They made a calf. And why a calf? Could they find no
fitter resemblance of God amongst all the creatures? Why not rather the lordly
lion, to show the sovereignty; vast elephant, the immensity; subtle serpent,
the wisdom; long-lived hart, the eternity; swift eagle, the ubiquity of God,
rather than the silly senseless calf, that eateth hay? But the shape matters
not much, for if God be made like anything, he may be made like anything, it
being as unlawful to fashion him an angel as a worm, seeing the commandment
forbids as well the likeness of things in heaven above as ill earth beneath (Ex
20:4). But probably a calf was preferred before other forms because they had
learned it from the Egyptians' worshipping their ox Apis. Thus the Israelites
borrowed (Ex 12:35) not all gold and silver but some dross from the Egyptians,
whence they fetch the idolatrous forms of their worship.
Verse
19. The modern Jews are of opinion that all the afflictions which
ever since have, do, or shall befall their nation, are still the just
punishments on them for this their first act of idolatry. And the rabbins have
a saying that God never inflicts any judgment upon them, but there is an ounce
of his anger on them for their ancestors' making the golden calf. A reverend
friend of mine, conversing at Amsterdam with a Jewish youth (very capable and
ingenious for one of that nation) endeavoured to make him sensible of God's
anger upon them for rejecting and crucifying of Christ, for which foul act he
showed how the Jews have lived many hundred years in miserable banishment. But
the youth would in no wise acknowledge in their sufferings any effect or
punishment of their murdering of Christ, but taking his Bible turned to God's
threatening immediately after their making of the calf (Ex 33:34);
"Nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon
them", so interpreting and applying all the numerous calamities which
since have befallen them to relate to no other cause than that their first
idolatry. Whereas, indeed, the arrears of their idolatry long ago were
satisfied, and this is a new debt of later date contracted on themselves by
their infidelity. Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661, in "A Pisgah Sight
of Palestine."
Verse
19. They made a calf, etc. This people had seen this
idolatrous service in Egypt; and now they did not more long after Egyptian
food, than after this Egyptian god...It is an easy matter for men to be drawn
to the practice of that idolatry that they have been accustomed to see
practised in those places that they have a long time lived in. He that would
take heed of idolatry, let him take heed of Egypt; the very air of Egypt (as I
may so say) is infectious in this kind. See here, they had seen the worship of
a young bullock in Egypt, and they must have a bullock. . . . The local seat of
Antichrist (and what seat can that be but Rome?) is called in the
Revelation by three names: it is called Egypt, Re 2:8. It is called Sodom
in the same verse. It is called Babylon in many places of the
Revelation. It is called Babylon, in regard of her cruelty. It is called
Sodom, in regard to her filthiness; and Egypt, in regard of her idolatry.
It is a hard matter for a man to live in Egypt, and not to taste and savour
somewhat of the idolatry of Egypt. We had sometime, in England, a proverb about
going to Rome. They said, a man that went the first time to Rome, he went to
see a wicked man there; he that went the second rime to Rome, went to be
acquainted with that wicked man there; he that went the third time, brought him
home with him. How many have we seen (and it is pity to see so many) of our
nobility and gentry go to those Egyptian, parts, and return home again; but few
of them bring home the same manners, the same religion, nor the same souls they
carried out with them. Thomas Westfield, Bishop of Brigtow, in
"England's Face in Israel's Glasse," 1658.
Verse
19. In Horeb. There is a peculiar stress on the words "in
Horeb", as denoting the very place where the great manifestation of God's
power and presence has been made, and where the law had been given, whose very
first words were a prohibition of the sin of idolatry. Agellius, in Neale
and Littledale.
Verse
19-20. Apis, or Serapis, was a true living black bull, with a white list
or streak along the back, a white mark in fashion of an half moon on his right
shoulder, only two hairs growing on his tail (why just so many and no more, the
devil knows), with a fair square blaze on his forehead, and a great bunch
called cantharus under his tongue. What art their priests did use to keep up
the breed and preserve succession of cattle with such gwrismata, or privy
marks, I list not to inquire...Besides this natural and living bull, kept in
one place, they also worshipped boun diacruson, a golden or gilded ox, the
image or portraiture of the former. Some conceive this Apis to have been the
symbol and emblem of Joseph the patriarch, so called from ba, ab, a
father, seeing he is said to be made by God a father to Pharaoh (Ge 45:8), that
is, preserver of him and his country; and therefore the Egyptians, in after
ages, gratified his memory with statues of an ox, a creature so useful in
ploughing, sowing, bringing home, and treading out of corn, to perpetuate that
gift of grain he had conferred upon them. They strengthen their conjecture
because Serapis (which one will have to be nothing else but Apis with addition
of rv, sar, that is, a prince, whence perchance our English Sir) was
pictured with a bushel over his head, and Joseph (we know) was corn meter
general in Egypt. Though others, on good ground, conceive ox worship in Egypt
of far greater antiquity. However, hence Aaron (Ex 32:4), and hence afterwards
Jeroboam (who flying from Solomon, lived some years with Shishak, king of
Egypt, 1Ki 11:40) had the pattern of their calves, which they made for the
children of Israel to worship. If any object the Egyptians' idols were bulls or
oxen, the Israelites' but calves, the difference is not considerable; for
(besides the objector never looked into the mouths of the latter to know their
age) gradus non variat speciem, a less character is not another letter.
Yea, Herodotus calls Apis himself moscov, a calf, and Vitulus is of as large
acceptation among the Latins. Such an old calf the poet describes—
Ego
hanc vitalam (ne forte recuses
Bis venit ad mulctram binos alit ubere faetus)
Depono.
My calf I lay (lest you mistake both tides
She comes to the pail and suckles twain besides).
But to put all out of doubt, what in Exodus is termed a calf, the psalmist
calleth an ox (Ps 106:20).
—Thomas Fuller.
Verses
19-22. It is to be hoped, we shall never live to see a time, when the
miracles of our redemption shall be forgotten; when the return of Jesus Christ
from heaven shall be despaired of; and when the people shall solicit their
teachers to fabricate a new philosophical deity, for them to worship, instead
of the God of their ancestors, to whom glory hath been ascribed from generation
to generation. George Horne.
Verse
20. An ox that eateth grass. The Egyptians, when they
consulted Apis, presented a bottle of hay or of grass, and if the ox received
it, they expected good success. Daniel Cresswell.
Verse
20. Although some of the Rabbins would excuse this gross idolatry of
their forefathers, yet others more wise bewail them, and say that there is an
ounce of this golden calf in all their present sufferings. John Trapp.
Verse
21. They forgat God. To devise images and pictures to put, us
in the mind of God, is a very forgetting both of God's nature and of his
authority, which prohibits such devices, for so doth the Lord expound it: "They
forgat God their saviour."—David Dickson.
Verse
21. Let us observe in this place that Israel is now for the third
time accused of forgetting God; above in Ps 106:7, afterwards in Ps 106:13, and
now in Ps 106:21. And that he might shew the greatness of this forgetfulness he
does not simply say they forgat God, but adds, their Saviour: not the
Saviour of their fathers in former times, but their own Saviour. Musculus.
Verse
22. Land of Ham. Egypt is called the land of Ham, or
rather Cham, Mx, because it was peopled by Mizraim, the son of Ham, and
grandson of Noah. Plutarch (De Iside and Osiride) informs us, that the
Egyptians called their country Chmia, Chemia; and the Copts give it the
name of Chmi, Chemi, to the present day. Comprehensive Bible.
Verse
23. Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach. Moses
stood in the gap, and diverted the wrath of God; the hedge of religion and
worship was broken down by a golden calf, and he made it up: Nu 16:41-42, the
people murmured, rose up against Moses and Aaron, trod down the hedge of
authority, whereupon the plague brake in upon them; presently Aaron steps That
into the gap, makes up the hedge, and stops the plague, Nu 16:47-48 which they
did was honourable; and they were repairers of breaches. We, through infinite
mercy, have had some like Moses and Aaron, to make up our hedges, raise up our
foundations, and stop some gaps; but all our gaps are not yet stopped. Are
there not gaps in the hedge of doctrine? If it were not so, how came in such
erroneous, blasphemous, and wild opinions amongst us? Are there not gaps in the
hedges of civil and ecclesiastical authority? Do not multitudes trample upon
magistracy and ministry, all powers, both human and divine? Are there not gaps
in the worship of God? Do not too many tread down all churches, all ordinances,
yea, the very Scriptures? Are there not gaps in the hedge of justice, through
which the bulls of Bashan enter, which oppress the poor, and crush the needy?
Am 4:1: Are there not gaps in the hedge of love; is not that bond of perfection
broken? Are there not bitter envyings and strife amongst us; do we not bite and
devour one another? Are there not gaps in the hedge of conscience? Is not the
peace broken between God and your souls? Doth not Satan come in oft at the gap,
and disturb you? Are there not gaps also in your several relations, whereby he
gets advantage? Surely, if our eyes be in our heads, we may see gaps enough. William
Greenhill.
Verse
23. The breach. This is a metaphor taken from a city which is
besieged, and in the walls of which the enemy having made a "breach"
is just entering in, to destroy it, unless he be driven back by some valiant
warrior. Thus Moses stood, as it were "in the breach",
and averted the wrath of God, when he was just going to destroy the Israelites.
See Ex 32:1-35. Thomas Fenton.
Verse
23. If Christians could be brought to entertain a just sense of the
value and power of intercessory prayer, surely it would abound. It is a
terrible reproof against the lying prophets of Ezekiel's time: "Ye have
not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to
stand in the battle in the day of the Lord" (Eze 13:5). Compare Ex
32:9-14. William S. Plumer.
Verse
24. Yea, they despised. When the promised inheritance of
heaven (which was figured by the pleasant land of promise), is not
counted worthy of all the pains and difficulties which can be sustained and met
with in the way of going toward it; the promised inheritance is but little
esteemed of, as appeareth in the Israelites, who for love of ease, and fear of
the Canaanites, were ready to turn back to Egypt: They despised the pleasant
land. David Dickson.
Verse
24. They despised the pleasant land. This was a type of
heaven, the good land afar off; the better country, the land of promise and
rest; in which is fulness of provisions, and where there will be no hunger and
thirst; where flows the river of the water of life, and stands the tree of
life, bearing all manner of fruits; where there is fulness of joy and pleasures
for evermore; the most delightful company of Father, Son, and Spirit, angels
and glorified saints, and nothing to disturb their peace and pleasure neither
from within nor from without. And yet this pleasant land may be said to be
despised by such who do not care to go through any difficulty to it; to perform
the duties of religion; to bear reproach for God's sake; to go through
tribulation; to walk in the narrow and afflicted way which leads unto it; and
by all such who do not care to part with their sinful lusts and pleasures; but
prefer them and the things of this world to the heavenly state. John Gill.
Verse
24. One great bar to salvation is spiritual sloth. It is said of
Israel, They despised the pleasant land. What should be the reason?
Canaan was a paradise of delight, a type of heaven; aye, but they thought it
would cost them a great deal of trouble and hazard in the getting, and they
would rather go without it, they despised the pleasant land. Are there not
millions of us who would rather go sleeping to hell, than sweating to heaven? I
have read of certain Spaniards that live near where there is great store of
fish, yet are so lazy that they will not be at the pains to catch them, but buy
of their neighbours: such a sinful stupidity and sloth is upon the most, that
though Christ be near them, though salvation is offered in the Gospel, yet they
will not work out salvation. Thomas Watson.
Verse
24-25. Murmuring hath in it much unbelief and distrust of God. They
believed not his word; but murmured in their tents. They could not believe
that the wilderness was the way to Canaan, that God would provide and furnish a
table for them there, and relieve them in all their straits. So it is with us
in trouble. We quarrel with God's providence, because we do not believe his
promises; we do not believe that this can be consistent with love, or can work
for good in the end. John Willison, 1680-1750.
Verse
25. But murmured. Murmuring! It must have been a malady
characteristic of the Hebrew people, or a disease peculiar to that desert. As
we proceed with this narrative we are constantly meeting it, creaking along in
discord harsh and chronic, or amazing earth and heaven by its shrill ear
piercing paroxysms. They lift up their eyes, and as the Egyptians pursue, the
people murmur. They come to a fountain, the water is bitter, and once more they
murmur. Then no bread; murmurings redoubled. Moses is no longer in the Mount;
murmurs. He takes too much upon him; more murmurs. When shall we reach that
promised land?—murmurs extraordinary, loud murmurs. We are close to the land,
but its inhabitants are giants, and their towns walled up to heaven. Oh, what a
take in! and the last breath of the last survivors of that querulous race goes
forth in a hurricane of reproach and remonstrance—a perfect storm of murmurs. James
Hamilton (1814-1867) in "Moses the man of God."
Verse
25. The murmuring on this occasion seems to have been a social evil,
they murmured in their tents. So do men in social life promote among
each other prejudice and aversion to true religion. W. Wilson.
Verse
28. They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor,—rather
"bound themselves with his badge": for it was the custom in ancient
times, as it is now, in all Pagan countries, for every idol to have some
specific badge, or ensign, by which his votaries are known. John Kitto, in
"Daily Bible Illustrations."
Verse
28. They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor. The narrative
(Nu 25:1-18) seems clearly to show that this form of Baal worship was connected
with licentious rites. Without laying too much stress on the Rabbinical
derivation of the word rwep, hiatus, i.e., "aperire hymenem
virgineum", we seem to have reason to conclude that this was the
nature of the worship. Baal Peor was identified by the Rabbins and early
fathers with Priapus (see the authorities quoted by Selden, De Diis Syris,
1., 4, p. 302, sq., who, however, dissents from this view.) This is, moreover,
the view of Creuzer (2., 411), Winer, Gesenius, Furst, and almost all critics.
The reader is referred for more detailed information particularly to Creuzer's Symbolik
and Movers' Phönizier. William Gotch, in "Smith's Dictionary of the
Bible."
Verse
28. Ate the sacrifices. It was usual for the officers to eat
the chief part of the sacrifice. Hence the remarks of Paul on this subject, 1Co
8:1-13. Benjamin Boothroyd.
Verse
28. The dead. The word Mytm, maithim, signifies dead
men; for the idols of the heathen were generally men,—warriors, kings, or
lawgivers,—who had been deified after their death; though many of them had been
execrated during their life. Comprehensive Bible.
Verse
28. And they ate the sacrifices of the dead.
His
obsequies to Polydorus paying
A tomb we raise, and altars to the dead
With dark blue fillets and black cypress bind
Our dames with hair dishevelled stand to mourn;
Warm frothy bowls of milk and sacred blood
We offer, in his grave the spirit lay,
Call him aloud, and bid our last farewell. Virgil.
Verse
29. They provoked him to anger with their inventions. Note,
that it is not said, with their deeds, but with their pursuits (studies).
It is one thing simply to do a thing; it is quite another to pursue it
earnestly night and day. The first may take place by chance, or through
ignorance, or on account of some temptation, or violence, and that without the
consent and against the inclination of the mind. But the latter is brought
about in pursuance of a fixed purpose and design and by effort and forethought.
We see, therefore, in this passage that the patience of God was at length
provoked to anger and fury when the people sinned not merely once and again,
but when the pursuit of sin grew and strengthened. Musculus.
Verse
29. Their inventions. Their sins are here called by the name
of "their inventions." And so, sure, they are; as no ways
taught us by God, but of our own imagining or finding out. For, indeed, our
inventions are the cause of all sins. And if we look well into it we shall find
our inventions are so. By God's injunction we should all live, and his
injunction is, "You shall not do every man what seems good in his own
eyes" (or finds out in his own brains), but "whatsoever I command
you, that shall you do." De 12:8. But we, setting light by that charge of
his, out of the old disease of our father Adam ("ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil"), think it a goodly matter to be witty, and to find
out things ourselves to make to ourselves, to be authors, and inventors of
somewhat, that so we may seem to be as wise as God, if not wiser; and to
know what is for our turns, as well as he, if not better. It was Saul's fault.
God bade him destroy Amalek altogether, and he would invent a better way, to save
some (forsooth) for sacrifice, which God could not think of. And it was St.
Peter's fault, when he persuaded Christ from his passion, and found out a
better way (as he thought) than Christ could devise. Lancelot Andrewes.
Verse
29. Brake in upon them. The image is that of a river which has
burst its barriers; see Ex 19:24. The plague is the slaughter inflicted upon
the people by command of Moses; Nu 25:4-5,8-9,18. "The Speaker's
Commentary."
Verse
30. Then stood up Phinehas. All Israel saw the bold lewdness
of Zimri, but their hearts and eyes were so full of grief, that they had not
room enough for indignation. Phinehas looked on with the rest, but with other
affections. When he saw this defiance bidden to God, and this insult upon the
sorrow of his people (that while they were wringing their hands, a proud
miscreant durst outface their humiliation with his wicked dalliance), his heart
boils with a desire of a holy revenge; and now that hand, which was used to a
censer and sacrificing knife, takes tip his javelin, and, with one stroke,
joins these two bodies in their death, which were joined in their sin, and in
the very flagrance of their lust, makes a new way for their souls to their own
place. O noble and heroical courage of Phinehas! Which, as it was rewarded of
God, so is worthy to be admired of men. He doth not stand casting of scruples:
Who am I to do this? The son of the high priest. My place is all for peace and
mercy: it is for me to sacrifice, and pray for the sin of the people, not to
sacrifice any of the people for their sin. My duty calls me to appease the
anger of God what I may, not to revenge the sins of men; to pray for their
conversion, not to work the confusion of any sinner. And who are these? Is not
the one a great prince in Israel, the other a princess of Midian? Can the death
of two so famous personages go unrevenged? Or, if it be safe and fit, why doth
my uncle Moses rather shed his own tears than their blood? I will mourn with
the rest; let them revenge whom it concerneth. But the zeal of God hath barred
out all weak deliberations; and he holds it now both his duty and his glory, to
be an executioner of so shameless a pair of offenders. . . . Now the sin is
punished, the plague ceaseth. The revenge of God sets out ever after the sin;
but if the revenge of men (which commonly comes later) can overtake it, God
gives over the chase. How oft hath the infliction of a less punishment avoided
a greater! There are none so good friends to the state, as courageous and
impartial ministers of justice: these are the reconcilers of God and the
people, more than the prayers of them that sit still and do nothing. Joseph
Hall.
Verse
30. Then stood up Phinehas, etc. Mark the mighty principle,
which rolled like a torrent in the heart of Phinehas. The Spirit leaves it not
obscure. The praise is this, "He was zealous for his God", Nu 25:13.
He could not fold his arms, and see God's law insulted, his rule defied, his
majesty and empire scorned. The servant's heart blazed in one blaze of godly indignation.
He must be up to vindicate his Lord. His fervent love, his bold resolve, fear
nothing in a righteous cause. The offending Zimri was a potent prince:
nevertheless he spared him not. Believer, can you read this and feel no shame?
Do your bold efforts testify your zeal? Sinners blaspheme God's name. Do you
rebuke? His Sabbaths are profaned. Do you protest? False principles are
current? Do you expose the counterfeits? Vice stalks in virtue's garb. Do you
tear down the mask? Satan enthrals the world. Do you resist? Nay, rather are
you not dozing unconcerned? Whether Christ's cause succeeds, or be cast down,
you little care. If righteous zeal girded your loins, and braced your nerves,
and moved the rudder of your heart, and swelled your sails of action, would God
be so unknown, and blasphemy so daring? Mark, next, the zeal of Phinehas is
sound minded. It is not as a courser without rein, a torrent unembanked, a
hurricane let loose. Its steps are set in order's path. It executes God's own
will in God's own way. The mandate says, let the offenders die. He aims a death
blow, then, with obedient hand. The zeal, which heaven kindles, is always a
submissive grace. Henry Law, in "Christ is All", 1858.
Verse
30. Stood up, as valiantly to do his work of zeal, as Moses
had done to discharge the office of intercessor, and because he alone rose to
set the example of resistance to the foul rites of Baal Peor. Cassiodorus,
quoted by Neale and Littledale.
Verse
30. So the plague was stayed. God himself puts this peculiar
honour of staying the plague (when he was about to destroy the whole camp) upon
this fact of Phinehas, saying, "He hath turned away my wrath", Nu
25:10-11, because he was acted with the same zeal for God's glory and Israel's
good, as God himself is acted with for them, and feared not to lose his life in
God's cause, by putting to death a prince and a princess in the very flagrancy
of their lust at one blow. There is such an accent and such an emphasis put by
the Lord on this act, (as the Jewish Rabbis observe), that here they begin the
forty-first section or lecture of the Law, or (as Vatablus saith) the seventh
section of the book, which they call Phinehas. Moreover, it teacheth us, that
zeal of justice in the cause of God is an hopeful means to remove God's wrath
from, and to procure his mercy to, man. Thus David also made an atonement by
doing justice on Saul's house, 2Sa 21:3, etc. . . . Phinehas by virtue of this
promise of the priesthood (Nu 25:12-13) lived himself to a great old age, even
(as some say) to three hundred years, as appeareth by Jud 20:28, where he then
is found alive, for his zeal at this time. He lived so long that some of the
Rabbis are of opinion that he died not at all, but is still alive, whom they
suppose to be the Elias that is to come before the coming of Christ; but this
notion is confuted by others of their Rabbis, and by the mention of his seed
succeeding him in sacred Scripture. However, though few after the Flood did
near attain to any such age, yet must Phinehas be very old in that time of
Israel's warring with Benjamin...Phinehas's priesthood is called
"everlasting", not in his person, but in his posterity, whose sons
were successively high priests till the captivity of Babylon, 1Ch 6:4-16; and
at the return out of captivity, Ezra, the great priest and scribe, was of his
line, Ezr 7:1-6; and so it continued in that line until, or very near, the
approach of our evangelical High Priest (as Christ is called, Heb 5:6), who was
of the order of Melchizedek. Christopher Ness.
Verse
30. Why is the pacifying of God's wrath, and the staying of the
plague ascribed to Phinehas, having a blush of irregularity in it, rather than
to the acts of Moses and the judges, which were by express command from God and
very regular? For answer, the acts of Moses and the judges slaked the fire
of God's wrath, that of Phinehas quenched it; again, the acts of Moses
and the judges had a rise from a spark, that of Phinehas from a flame
of zeal and holy indignation in him; hence the Lord, who is exceedingly
taken with the springs and roots of actions, sets the crown upon the head of
Phinehas. Edmund Staunton, in a Sermon preached before the House of Lords,
1644.
Verse
30. So the plague was stayed. A man doth not so live by his
own faith, but in temporal respects the faith of another man may do him
good. Masters by their faith obtained healing for their servants, parents for
their children, Mt 15:28. "Oh, man, great is thy faith!" "Jesus
seeing their faith", healed the sick of the palsy. God's people for the
town or place where they live: "The innocent" (i.e., the
faithful doer) "shall deliver the island", Job 22:30. Ge 18:32,
"If ten righteous persons shall be found there, I will not destroy it for
ten's sake." Especially in Magistrates, Moses, Nu 14:1-45; Hezekiah,
Isa 37:1-38, put up prayers, and God saved the people and places, they prayed
for: Then Phinehas executed judgment (appeased God by faith) and so
the plague was stayed. Matthew Lawrence.
Verse
30. Elevation of mind and sweetness of spirit are pearls of great
price, and if we wish to preserve them we had better intrust them to God's own
keeping. If Moses lost his faith, it was by first losing self command: and if a
man lose this, it is hard to say what next he may lose: like the mad warrior
who makes a missile of his shield and hurls it at the head of all enemy, he is
henceforward open to every fiery dart, to the cut and thrust of every
assailant. But, as John Newton remarks, "The grace of God is as necessary
to create a right temper in a Christian on the breaking of a china plate as on
the death of an only son"; and as no man can tell on any dawning day but
what that may be the most trying day in all his life, how wise to pray without
ceasing, "uphold me according unto thy word. Hold thou me up, and I shall
be safe." "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: keep the door of my
lips." "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret
faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have
dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the
great transgression."—James Hamilton.
Verse
32. It went ill with Moses. This judgment of God on that sin
did not imply that he had blotted Moses out of the book of life, or the number
of the saints, or otherwise than forgive his sin. For he continued still to
talk with him, and advise with him of the governing of his people, and spake to
Joshua that he should be faithful to him as his servant Moses. That was not the
true Canaan from which he was shut out, but only the figure and shadow; and
that he was allowed to see; a vision well worthy of all his labours, for the
more excellent things signified by it. Isaac Williams, in "The
Characters of the Old Testament," 1873.
Verse
33. They provoked his spirit. As Abraham was distinguished for
his faith, so was Moses for his meekness; for Scripture has declared that he
was "very meek, above all the men which were on the face of the
earth", Nu 12:3. Yet, judging from facts recorded of him, we should be
inclined to suppose that he was by nature remarkable for sensitiveness and
hastiness of temper—that was his one besetting infirmity. Such appears to have
been evinced when he slew the Egyptian; when he twice smote the rock in the
wilderness; and on that occasion when he was "punished", as the
psalmist says, "because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake
unadvisedly with his lips", and when he broke the two tables of stone.
Something of the same kind appears to have been the case with our own Hooker,
whose biographer attributes to him such singular meekness, while his private
writings indicate a temper keenly alive and sensitive to the sense of wrong. Isaac
Williams.
Verse
33. They provoked his spirit. In a dispensation itself mainly
gracious, and foreshadowing one which would be grace altogether, it was of
prime importance that the mediating men should be merciful and gracious, long
suffering, and slow to anger. And sure they were in marvellous manner. . . .
Brimming, over with instruction as is this passage, we must leave it with a few
remarks.
1.
How careful preachers of the gospel and expounders of Scripture should be not
to give an erroneous impression of God's mind or message. The mental acumen is
rare, but the right spirit is rarer. But what is the right spirit?—A loving
spirit, a gentle spirit, a faithful spirit, a meek and weaned spirit, a spirit
which says, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth", and a spirit
which adds, "All that the Lord giveth me, that will I speak", that
excellent spirit which is only imparted by the good Spirit of God. For if He
withdraw, even a Moses ceases to be meek, and ceasing to be meek, even a Moses
becomes a bad divine and an erroneous teacher, striking the rock that has been
already stricken once for all, and preaching glad tidings gruffly. He who gives
the living water does not grudge it; but sometimes, instead of "Ho! every
one that thirsteth", the preacher says, "Hear now, ye rebels; must we
fetch you water out of this rock?" and makes the very invitation
repulsive.
2.
When any one has run long and run well, how sad it is to stumble within a few
steps of the goal! If Moses had an earthly wish, it was to see Israel safe in
their inheritance, and his wish was all but consummated. Faith and patience had
held out well nigh forty years, and in a few months more the Jordan would be
crossed and the work would be finished. And who can tell but this very nearness
of the prize helped to create something of a presumptuous confidence? The blood
of Moses was hot to begin with, and he was not the meekest of men when he smote
the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. But he had got a good lesson in ruling
his spirit, and betwixt the long sojourn with Jethro and the self discipline
needful in the charge of this multitude, he might fancy that he had now his
foot on the neck of this enemy: when lo! the sin revives and Moses dies.
Blessed
is the man that feareth alway! Blessed is the man who, although years have
passed without an attempt at burglary, still bars his doors and sees his
windows fastened! Blessed is the man who, although a generation has gone since
the last eruption, forbears to build on the volcanic soil and dreads fires
which have smouldered for fourscore years! Blessed is the man who, even when
the high seas are crossed and the land is made, still keeps an outlook! Blessed
is the man who, even on the confines of Canaan, takes heed of the evil heart,
lest, with a promise of entering in, he should come short through unbelief!
Verse
33. They provoked his spirit, etc. Angry he certainly was; and
when, reverting to a former miracle, the Most High directed him to take the
wonder staff—his rod of many miracles and at the head of the congregation
"speak to the rock", and it would "give forth its water",
in the heat and agitation of his spirit he failed to implement implicitly the
Divine command. Instead of speaking to the rock he spoke to the people, and his
harangue was no longer in the language calm and dignified of the lawgiver, but
had a certain tone of petulance and egotism. "Hear now, ye rebels, must
we—must I and Aaron, not must Jehovah—fetch you water out of this rock?"
And instead of simply speaking to it, he raised the rod and dealt it two
successive strokes, just as if the rock were sharing the general perversity,
and would no more than the people obey its Creator's bidding. He was angry, and
he sinned. He sinned and was severely punished. Water flowed sufficient for the
whole camp and the cattle, clear, cool, and eagerly gushing, enough for all the
million; but at the same moment that its unmerited bounty burst on you, ye
rebels, "a cup of wrath was put into the hand of Moses." (Van
Oosterzee.) To you, ye murmurers, there came forth living water; to your
venerable leaders the cup of God's anger. "The Lord spoke unto Moses and
Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children
of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I
have given them." Nu 20:12. James Hamilton.
Verse
33. He spake unadvisedly with his lips. The Lord desires him
to address the rock, but Moses speaks to Israel. God wishes him to speak a word
to the inanimate stone, and Moses strikes it twice. God still is willing that
the people shall remain as his inheritance, but Moses evidently treats them
with ill will and much offensiveness. God wishes to relieve, and give
refreshing to the people in their thirst, and Moses is selected to cooperate
with him in all such joy; but mark how, on this very day, a deep discord
between God's inclination and the mind of Moses shows itself. God is inclined
to grant forgiveness,—Moses inclines to punishment; before, the very opposite
seemed to prevail. God is forbearing,—Moses, filled with bitterness; God seeks
to glorify his grace,—with Moses, self, not God, comes into prominence.
"Must we",—not, "must the Lord",—but "must we fetch
you water out of this rock?" We see now, in this prophet, strong at other
times, the first plain indications of decay and weariness. He has grown tired
(and truly it should not seem strange, for which of us could have sustained a
struggle such as his for half the time?) of carrying these stubborn children
any longer now. This man, so truly great, has never for an instant hitherto
forgotten his own dignity in presence of all Israel; but now, he is no longer
master of himself. J.J. Van Oosterzee.
Verse
33. He spake unadvisedly. A gracious person may be surprised
and fall suddenly among thieves that lurk behind the bushes. Nay, very holy
men, unless wonderful wary, may be quickly tripped up by sudden questions and
unexpected emergencies. Who knows the subtilty of sin, and the deceitfulness of
his own heart? Take heed of answering quickly, and send up sudden ejaculations
to heaven before you reply to a weighty and doubtful motion. Samuel Lee.
Verse
34-38. The miracles and mercies which settled them in Canaan made no
more deep and durable impressions upon them than those that fetched them out of
Egypt; for by that time they were well warm in Canaan, they corrupted
themselves, and forsook God. Observe the steps of their apostasy.
1.
They spared the nations which God had doomed to destruction (Ps 106:34). When
they had got the good land God had promised them, they had no zeal against the
wicked inhabitants, whom the Lord commanded them to extirpate, pretending pity;
but so merciful is God, that no man needs to be in any case more compassionate
than he.
2.
When they spared them, they promised themselves, that for all this, they would
not join in any dangerous affinity with them; but the way of sin is down hill;
omissions make way for commissions; when they neglect to destroy the heathen,
the next news we hear is, they were mingled among the heathen, made
leagues with them, and contracted an intimacy with them, so that they learned
their works (Ps 106:35). That which is rotten will sooner corrupt that
which is sound, than be cured or made sound by it.
3.
When they mingled with them, and learned some of their works that seemed
innocent diversions and entertainments, yet they thought they would never join
with them in their worship; but by degrees they learned that too (Ps 106:36). They
served their idols in the same manner, and with the same rites that they
served them; and they became a snare unto them, that sin drew on many more, and
brought the judgments of God upon them, which they themselves could not but be
sensible of, and yet knew not how to recover themselves.
4.
When they joined with them in some of their idolatrous services, which they
thought had least harm in them, they little thought that ever they should be
guilty of that barbarous and inhuman piece of idolatry, the sacrificing of
their living children to their dead gods: but they came to that at last (Ps
106:37-38) in which Satan triumphed over his worshippers, and regaled himself
in blood and slaughter. They sacrificed their sons and daughters, pieces
of themselves to devils; and added murder, the most unnatural murder, to
their idolatry; one cannot think of it without horror; they "shed innocent
blood", the most innocent, for it was infant blood, nay, it was the
"blood of their sons and their daughters." See the power of the
spirit that works in the children of disobedience, and see his malice. The
beginning of idolatry and superstition, like that of strife, is as the letting
forth of water, and there is no villainy which they that venture upon it can be
sure they shall stop short of, for God justly "gives them up to a
reprobate mind" (Ro 1:28). Matthew Henry.
Verse
37. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto
devils. We need no better argument to discover the nature of these gods
than this very service in my text accepted of them: for both by the record of
sacred writ, and relation of heathen authors and other writers, we know that
nothing was so usually commanded nor gratefully accepted by these heathenish
gods, as was the shedding of man's blood, and the sacrificing of men, maids,
and children unto them, as appears by the usual practice of men in former
times. From the testimonies of Scripture, I give only the example of the king
of Moab, mentioned in 2Ki 3:27, where it is said, that, being in some straits,
"He took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered
him for a burnt offering upon the wall."
The
stories likewise of the heathen are full of like examples. When the oracle of
Apollo was asked by the Athenians how they might make amends for their killing
of Androgens, it willed them to send yearly to king Minos seven bodies of each
sex to appease the wrath of god. Now this kind of yearly sacrifice continued
still in Athens in the time of Socrates. Thus the Carthaginians, being
vanquished by Agathocles, king of Sicily, and supposing their god to be
displeased, to appease him did sacrifice two hundred noble men's children. This
custom was ancient even before the Trojan war, for then was Iphigenia
sacrificed. Thus we read that the Latins sacrificed the tenth of their children
to Jupiter; that men and children were usually sacrificed to Saturn in many
places in Candia, Rhodomene, Phoenice, Africa, and those commonly the choice
and dearest of their children and most nobly descended. The manner of
sacrificing their children to Saturn, Diodorus relates to be this: bringing
their children to the statue or image of Saturn, which was of huge greatness,
they gave them into his hands, which were made so hollow and winding that the
children offered slipped and fell down through into a cave and furnace of fire.
These sacrifices continued in use till the birth and death of our Saviour
Christ, who came to destroy the work of the devil; for such sacrifices were
first forbidden by Augustus Caesar; after more generally by Tiberius (in whose
reign our Saviour suffered) who, as Tertullian writes, so straitly forbade
them, that he crucified the priests who offered them: howbeit, even in
Tertullian's time, and after in Eusebius' and Lactantius' times, such
sacrifices were offered (but closely) to Jupiter Latialis.
Who
can now doubt, seeing such exceeding superstitious cruelty, but that the gods
commanding such sacrifices were very devils and enemies to mankind? God commands
no such thing, but forbids it, and threatens plagues to his people, because
they had forsaken him and "built also the high places of Baal, to burn
their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, not
spake it, neither came it into my mind" (Jer 19:5). Most infallibly then
we may conclude that none but Satan, that arch devil, with his angels, were the
commanders of such service, for this agrees right well with his nature, who
hath been a murderer from the beginning. Robert Jenison, in "The Height
of Israel's Heathenish Idolatrie, in Sacrificing their Children to the
Devil," 1621.
Verse
37. Yea, they sacrificed their sons, etc. From this we learn
that inconsiderate zeal is a flimsy pretext in favour of any act of devotion. For
by how much the Jews were under the influence of burning zeal, by so much does
the prophet convict them of being guilty of greater wickedness; because their
madness carried them away to such a pitch of enthusiasm, that they did not
spare even their own offspring. Were good intentions meritorious, as idolaters
suppose, then indeed the laying aside of all natural affection in sacrificing
their own children was a deed deserving the highest praise. But when men act
under the impulse of their own capricious humour, the more they occupy
themselves with acts of external worship, the more do they increase their
guilt. For what difference was there between Abraham and those persons of whom
the prophet makes mention, but that the former, under the influence of faith
was ready to offer up his son, while the latter, carried away by the impulse of
intemperate zeal, cast off all natural affection, and imbrued their hands in
the blood of their own offspring. John Calvin.
Verse
37. Devils, Mydv, Shedim. It appears that children were
sacrificed to the deities thus named; that they were considered to be of an
angry nature, and inimical to the human race, and thus the object of the homage
rendered to them was to avert calamities. The name Mydv may signify either lord
or master, or anything that is black, it being derived from an
Arabic Ain Vav verb—viz., to be black, or to be master. John
Jahn, in "Biblical Antiquities."
Verse
37-38. We stand astonished, doubtless, at this horrid, barbarous, and
unnatural impiety, of offering children by fire to a Moloch: but how little is
it considered, that children, brought up in the ways of ignorance, error,
vanity, folly, and vice, are more effectually sacrificed to the great adversary
of man kind!—George Horne.
Verse
39. And went a whoring with their own inventions. As harlotry
is one of the most abominable of sins that can be committed by a daughter or a
wife; so often in the Scriptures turning from God and especially the practice
of idolatry is called whoredom and fornication, Ps 73:27 Ex 34:15-16. William
S. Plumer.
Verse
40. He abhorred his own inheritance. Whenever great love sinks
into great hate it is termed abhorrence. Lorinus.
Verse
43. They were brought low for their iniquity. Sin is of a
weakening and impoverishing nature; it has weakened all mankind, and taken from
them their moral strength to do good; and has brought them to poverty and want;
to be beggars on the dunghill; to a pit wherein is no water; and left them in a
hopeless and helpless condition; yea, it brings the people of God often times
after conversion into a low estate, when God hides his face because of it,
temptations are strong, grace is weak, and they become lukewarm and indifferent
to spiritual things. John Gill.
Verse
46. He made them also to be pitied of all them that carried them
captives. This improved feeling towards the Jews through God's influence
appears in Da 1:9; as Joseph similarly had his captivity improved by God's
favour (Ge 39:21). So Evil merodach, King of Babylon, treated kindly
Jehoiachin, king of Judah (2Ki 25:27). A.R. Fausset.
Verse
47. Gather us. Bishop Patrick says that, in his opinion, this
verse refers to those, who, in the days of Saul, or before, were taken
prisoners by the Philistines, or other nations; whom David prays God to gather
to their own land again; that they might worship him in that place which he had
prepared for the ark of his presence. Thomas Fenton.
Verse
48. Amen. Martin Luther said once of the Lord's Prayer that
"it was the greatest martyr on earth because it was used so frequently
without thought and feeling, without reverence and faith." This quaint
remark, as true as it is sad, applies perhaps with still greater force to the
word "Amen." Familiar to us from our infancy is the sound of
this word, which has found a home wherever the natives have learnt to adore
Israel's God and Saviour. It has been adopted, and without translation
retained, in all languages in which the gospel of Jesus the Son of David is
preached. The literal signification, "So be it", is known to all; yet
few consider the deep meaning, the great solemnity, and the abundant
consolation treasured up in this word, which has formed for centuries the
conclusion of the prayers and praises of God's people. A word which is
frequently used without due thoughtfulness, and unaccompanied with the feeling
which it is intended to call forth, loses its power from this very familiarity,
and though constantly on our lips, lies bedridden in the dormitory of our soul.
But it is a great word this word "Amen"; and Luther has truly
said, "As your Amen is, so has been your prayer." It is a word of
venerable history in Israel and in the church. The word dates as far back as
the law of Moses. When a solemn oath was pronounced by the priest, the response
of the person who was adjured consisted simply of the word "Amen."
In like manner the people responded "Amen" when, from the heights of
Ebal and Gerizim, the blessings and the curses of the divine law were
pronounced. Again, at the great festival which David made when the ark of God
was brought from Obed Edom, the psalm of praise which Asaph and his brethren
sang concluded with the words, "Blessed be the Lord. God of Israel for
ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen" (1Ch 16:36). Thus we find in
the Psalms, not merely that David concludes his psalm of praise with the word Amen,
but he says, And let all the people say, Amen. Adolph Saphir, in "The
Lord's Prayer," 1870.
Verse
1. Take this verse as the theme of the Psalm, and we shall then see
that its exhortation to praise,
1.
Is directed to a special people: chosen, redeemed, but sinful, borne with, and
forgiven.
2.
Is supported by abundant arguments. Man not to be praised, for he sins. God
gives in his goodness, and forgives in his mercy, and is therefore to be
thanked.
3.
Is as applicable now as ever: for our story is a transcript of Israel's.
Verse
2.
1.
A challenge.
2.
A suggestion: at least let us do what we can.
3.
An ambition: in the ages to come we will make known with the church to angels,
and all intelligent beings, the mighty acts of divine grace.
4.
A question—shall I be there?
Verse
3. The blessedness of a godly life.
Verse
4.
1.
The language of Humility: "Remember me, O Lord." Let me not escape
thy notice amongst the many millions of creatures under thy care.
2.
The language of Faith.
(a)
That God has a people to whom he shows special favour.
(b)
That he himself has provided salvation for them.
3.
The language of prayer.
(a)
For the free gift of salvation.
(b)
For the common salvation—not wishing to be peculiar, but to be as "Thy
people", taking them for all in all, both here and hereafter. Walking in
the footsteps of the flock.
"Be
this my glory, Lord, to be
Joined to thy saints, and near to thee."—G.R.
Verses
4, 7, 45. In Ps 106:4, a remembrance desired. In Ps 106:7, a failure of
remembrance deplored. In Ps 106:45, a divine remembrance extolled.
Verse
5.
1.
The Persons: "Thy chosen"; "Thy nation"; "Thine
inheritance."
2.
The Privileges: "The good of thy chosen"; "The gladness of thy
nation"; "The glory of thine inheritance."
3.
The Pleas: "That I may see", etc. They were once as I am: make me
what they are now.
(a)
My salvation is everything to me. "That I may see," etc. "That I
may rejoice", etc. They are many, I am but one. "That I may
glory", etc.—G.R.
Verse
6. In what respects men may be partakers in the sins of their
ancestors.
Verses
7-8.
1.
On man's part a darkened understanding, ungrateful forgetfulness, and
provocation.
2.
On God's part: understanding discovering a reason for mercy; memory mindful of
the covenant; patience revealing its power.
Verses
7-8.
1.
A special provocation; they murmured at the Red Sea.
2.
A special deliverance; "Nevertheless", etc.
3.
A special Design; "For his own sake"; "That he might make his
power known."—G.R.
Verse
8. Salvation by grace a grand display of power.
Verse
8.
"Why
are men saved?" See "Spurgeon's Sermons", No. 115.
1.
The glorious Saviour, "He."
2.
The favoured persons, who are they?
(a)
They were a stupid people: "Our fathers understood not", etc., Ps
106:7.
(b)
An ungrateful people: "They remembered not", etc., Ps 106:7,13,24,
etc.
(c)
A provoking people.
3.
The reason of salvation: "He saved them for his name's sake." The
name of God is his person, his attributes, and his nature. We might, perhaps,
include this also: "My name is in him"—that is, in Christ; he saves
us for the sake of Christ, who is the name of God. He saved them that he might
manifest his nature: "God is love." He saved them to vindicate his
name.
4.
The obstacles removed: "Nevertheless."
Verse
9. Israel at the Red Sea. See "Spurgeon's Sermons",
No. 72.
1.
Israel's three difficulties.
(a)
The Red Sea in front of them. This was not put there by an enemy; but by God
himself. The Red Sea represents some great and trying providence placed in the
path of every newborn child of God, to try his faith, and the sincerity of his
trust in God.
b)
The Egyptians behind them,—the representatives of the sins which we thought
were dead and gone. (c) The third difficulty was faint hearts within them.
2.
Israel's three helps.
(a)
Providence.
(b)
Their knowledge that they were the covenant people of God.
(c)
The man,—Moses. So the believer's hope and help is in the God man Christ Jesus.
3.
God's grand design in it. To give them a thorough baptism into his service,
consecrating them for ever to himself (1Co 1-2).
Verse
9. (second clause). Dangerous and difficult paths rendered
safe and easy by God's leadership.
Verse
11. (second clause). Song over sins forgiven.
Verses
12-14. The faith of nature, based on sight, causes transient joy, soon
evaporates, dies in utter unbelief, and conducts to greater sin.
Verses
13-15.
1.
Mercies are sooner forgotten than trials: "They soon forgat", etc. We
write our afflictions on marble, our mercies upon sand.
2.
We should wait for God, as well as upon God: "They waited not," etc.
3.
Immoderate desire for what we have not of worldly goods, tempts God to deprive
us of what we have: Ps 106:14.
4.
Prayer may be answered for evil as well as for good: "He gave them their
request", then smote them with a plague.
5.
Carnal indulgence is inimical to spiritual mindedness: Ps 106:15. Better have a
lean body and healthy soul, than a healthy body and leanness of soul.
"Poor in this world, rich in faith." There are few of whom it can be
said, "I wish thou mayest prosper and be in health," etc. (3Jo 2). G.R.
Verse
14. The wickedness of inordinate desires.
1.
They are out of place—"in the wilderness."
2. They are assaults upon God—"and tempted God."
3. They are despisers of former mercies—see preceding verses.
4. They involve solemn danger—see following verse.
Verse
16. The sin of envy. Its base nature, its cruel actions its
unscrupulous ingratitude, its daring assaults, its abomination before God.
Verse
19. The sinner as an inventor.
Verses
19-22.
1.
The Sin remembered.
(a)
Idolatry: not forgetting God merely, or disowning him, but setting up an idol
in his place.
(b)
Idolatry of the worst kind: changing be glory of God into the similitude of an
ox, etc.
(c)
The idolatry of Egypt under which they had suffered, and from which they had
been delivered.
(d)
Idolatry after many wonderful interpositions of the true God in their behalf.
2.
The Remembrance of Sin.
(a)
For Humiliation. It was the sin of their fathers.
(b)
For self condemnation. "We have sinned with our fathers." It was our
nature in them, and it is their nature in us that has committed this great sin.
Verse
23. Moses, the intercessor, a type of our Lord. Carefully study his
pleading as recorded in Ex 32:1-35.
Verse
23.
1.
Mediation required: "He said that he would destroy them," etc.
2.
Mediation offered: "Moses stood before him in the breach."
3.
Mediation accepted: "To turn away his wrath", etc. Ex 32:1-35. G.R.
Verse
24-26. Murmuring.
1.
Arises from despising our mercies.
2. Is fostered by unbelief.
3. Is indulged in all sorts of places.
4. Makes men deaf to the Lord's voice.
5. Provokes great judgments from the Lord.
Verse
24-27.
1.
The Rest promised: "The pleasant land."
2.
The Refusal of the Rest: "They despised", etc.
3.
The Reason of the Refusal: unbelief. "They could not enter in because of
unbelief."—G.R.
Verse
30-31. The effects of one decisive act for God; immediate, personal, and
for posterity.
Verses
32-33.
1.
The afflictions of God's people are for the trial of their faith.
2.
The trial of their faith is to bring them from dependence upon circumstances to
depend upon God himself.
3.
The forbearance of God with his people is greater than that of the best of men.
G.R.
Verse
33.
1.
What it is so to speak unadvisedly.
2. What is the great cause of it—"they provoked his spirit."
3. What the results may be.
Verse
34-42.
1.
What Israel did not do. They began well, but did not complete the conquest of
their foes: Ps 106:34.
2.
What they did do: Ps 106:35-39.
(a)
They became friendly with them.
(b)
They adopted their habits: "learned their works."
(c)
They embraced their religion: "served their idols."
(d)
They imitated their cruelties; Ps 106:37-38.
(e)
They did worse than the heathen (Ps 106:39), they added wicked inventions of
their own.
3.
What God did to them: Ps 106:40-42. He gave them into the hands of their
enemies, and suffered them to be severely oppressed by them. We must either
conquer all our foes or be conquered by them. Bring your shield from the battle
or be brought home upon it.—G.R.
Verse
37. Moloch worship in modern times. Children sacrificed to fashion,
wealth, and loveless marriage among the higher classes. Bad example, drinking
customs, etc., among the poorer sort. A needful subject.
Verse
44-45. Sin in God's people.
1.
Is very provoking to God.
2.
Ensures chastisement.
3.
Is to be sincerely mourned—"their cry."
4.
Will be graciously forgiven, and its effect removed. So the covenant promises.
Verse
47.
1.
An earnest Prayer: "Save us, O Lord", etc.
2.
A Believing Prayer: "O Lord our God."
3.
A humble Prayer: "Gather us from among the heathen."
4.
A sincere Prayer: "To give thanks unto thy holy name"; to own thy
justice and holiness in all thy ways.
5.
A confident Prayer: "To triumph in thy praise." None but bruised
spices give forth such odours.—G.R.
Verse
48.
1.
God is to be praised as the "God of Israel."
(a)
Of typical Israel.
(b) Of the true Israel.
2.
He is to be praised as the God of Israel under all circumstances: for his
judgments as well as for his mercies.
3.
At all times: "From everlasting to everlasting."
4.
By all people: "Let all the people say, Amen."
5.
As the beginning and end of every song: "Praise ye the Lord."—G.R.
Verse
48. Let all the people say, Amen. The exhortation to universal
praise. All men are indebted to the Lord, all have sinned, all hear the gospel,
all his people are saved. Unanimity in praise is pleasant, and promotes unity
in other matters.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》